Before the Egg Cracks
by RenkonNairu
Summary: Devlin's first time meeting Gwendolyn is awkward. It has to be explained to him that she and his father had a history together. Then Devlin is accidentally hurled back in time and he gets to see just what kind of "history" Kevin Levin and Gwendolyn Tennyson really had together.
1. Devlin's Start Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter One: Devlin's Start Point

Devlin's first time meeting Gwendolyn was... odd.

The sorceress-Plumber had been off planet at the time of Kevin's escape from the Null Void -an escape facilitated by Devlin himself- and so she missed the obligatory fight and ensuing family drama that occurred immediately after. She never saw how Kevin just threw him aside when he got in the way, neither did she get the chance to way in on the decision to accept Devlin into the family.

Maybe that was the reason Ben had become his legal _foster_ parent, instead of his official _adopted_ father. If Gwendolyn didn't like him... if Gwendolyn didn't want Kevin 11,000's son living with them, would they reject him? Would Ben send him into the system? Or arrange for a different family to take care of him?

Devlin didn't know if this theory -this fear- was supported or dissuaded when Ben stopped Gwendolyn before they could be formally introduced. Grabbing her by the arm, he leaned in close and whispered to Gwendolyn, "Red, he doesn't know you. I don't think Kevin ever told him much about-"

But the sorceress pulled her arm out of the hero's grasp and crossed the room to the apprehensive boy without letting Ben finish -her expression unreadable. Devlin was pretty sure he wasn't meant to hear Ben's warning, Ben probably didn't realize how good the boy's hearing was. It was a trait inherited from Wildemutt, the Vulpimancer DNA sample of the Omnitrix that was passed to Devlin from his father. But even if he hadn't heard the comment, it was clear by how intently she was starting at him with that indecipherable expression, that Gwendolyn Tennyson and his father had some kind of history.

Would she reject him because of it?

His father was evil, so Devlin must be evil too.

Instead, the sorceress did something entirely unexpected. She sank to her knees and pulled the sullen and apprehensive boy into her arms. She wrapped him in a warm and affectionate hug that was much, much tighter than Devlin felt it needed to be. He was so confused. A few short seconds ago, he was sure she was going to reject him. Say he was as bad as his father and tell Ben to get rid of him. Instead, she muttered into his hair. Her voice shaky, as if she were trying to hold back from crying.

"I'm so glad you're here."

All his apprehension and fear was suddenly replaced by awkward discomfort. He had never been hugged that often with Kevin and wasn't really used to receiving affection. "Uh... thanks. Happy to be here."

Devlin patted her ginger and copper poney-tail because he didn't know what else to do.

Her already tight hug tightened just a bit more before she let go of him and stood, taking an awkward step back and wiping her eyes. Yup. She definitely wiped her eyes. The sorceress he was so sure was going to send him packing -not that he really had much to pack- had been crying. Devlin would have liked to know why.

"We should celebrate!" Announced Gwendolyn, clearing her throat. "Lets all go out to dinner. My treat!"

…

Dinner wasn't bad. Still awkward and strange. Devlin had no idea how to act around Ben's cousin whom was -in all honesty- really more like a sister to the Hero of the Universe.

She took them to one of those gimmicky restaurants where there was more emphasis on the décor and ambiance than the actual menu. The booths were made out to look like vintage cars, the menus were round like steering wheels or tires, and the walls were lined with old license plates and car parts. Clearly, the restaurant was designed to cater to a specific niche market -car people. Either car collectors, or custom mechanics. Devlin couldn't decide.

Only he never would have imagined the great and powerful sorceress Gwendolyn Tennyson being a big gear head. She just didn't seem the type. Devlin on the other hand fancied himself an armature mechanic and loved tinkering with machines, engines, and moving parts. He built his own hover board himself. But cars were of a special interest to him and he spent most of the time waiting for their food staring at the parts on the wall and trying to decide what makes and/or models they came from.

Gwendolyn leaned across the table, resting her chin in her hands and asked, "You like cars, Devlin?"

Devlin pulled away slightly. Usually, when an adult looked at him that intently and asked, 'Hey, kid, you like [BLANK]?' it was not an innocent and friendly question. Kevin -for all his many faults and failings- taught him what to do if an adult (especially a stranger) ever showed that much interest in him. But Gwendolyn wasn't really a stranger, right? Devlin didn't actually know her, sure. But she was Ben's cousin. That meant she was alright, right?

He decided to play off his suspicious hesitation as disinterest. "They're okay, I guess."

He didn't know what kind of reaction she was expecting. But he wasn't really expecting her to follow up with another question about his interests.

"What about books, then? Do you like to read?"

That one seemed to come straight out of left field to Devlin. At least the car question made sense given their current surroundings. He failed to see how books might be relevant. Maybe he paused a bit to long before answering this time, because Gwendolyn gave him this odd, hesitant look that was halfway between apologetic and unsure.

"Or... can you read? Kevin wasn't..." A pause. She cleared her throat. "I know your father wasn't the most academic man in the world..."

" _I can read!_ " Devlin snapped, defensive. The eleven-year-old glared challenging at her. "I've even read a chapter book!"

Now it was Devlin's turn to choke at the memory. One of the very few good memories he had of his father. For one of Devlin's birthdays -not long before Kevin was sent into the Null Void- he gave Devlin a chapter book. Old, and beat up. He said it was the book his mother read to him when he was small, and he always planned to read it to his own children. Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... okay, and maybe a little kissing. But that didn't mean it was a 'kissing book'!

Kevin tried to read it to him at first. But as Gwendolyn just said, his father wasn't really the most academic person in the world, and his reading skills weren't really all that great. He got frustrated easily and gave up. But he left the book with Devlin, and he kept reading it on his own. It was a little above his age-level, but things like that never seemed all that relevant to Devlin. He was very smart and understood a great deal more than the average eleven-year-old.

"That's really great, Devlin!" Gwendolyn was smiling at him. Like, a real smile. Warm and affectionate -and strangely proud, like she somehow took personal pride in the fact that he was an avid reader. (Although, Devlin wasn't sure if he could classify himself as an 'avid reader' when he'd really only read one book.) "Has Ben enrolled you in school yet?"

"N-no." An unsure glance at Ben. The Hero hadn't enrolled him school with Kenny yet because he wanted to make sure the boy was acclimated to a stable home life and understood that he had a firm support structure before he threw him into public school -which was terrible enough without the added stress of not knowing your place in the world.

"Would you like to be enrolled at my old school?" She asked.

He blinked in confusion at her, not understanding what her motivation behind the suggestion could be.

Sitting next to her, Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe tone it back a notch, Red." He said. "Remember, Devlin's only just met you and is still getting used to the family."

For some reason, that reminder made her eyes go glassy and Devlin wondered if she was gonna cry again. But those shining eyes quickly turned annoyed and she shoved Ben's hand off her shoulder in irritation instead. "Don't tell me to 'tone it back'!" She snarled at him. "You have no idea how-"

"I was there, Red." Ben cut her off. "I know, okay. I know."

Devlin had no idea what they were talking about. Well, obviously they were talking about him. But not what about him specifically. Was Ben referencing the fight with Kevin? He was there and Gwendolyn wasn't. He saw how Kevin cast him aside and threw him away because he put himself between the Osmosian and the changling. Or was he talking about something else? Something older. It was no secret that Ben 10,000 and Kevin 11,000 had a long history.

Gwendolyn glared at Ben. A look of angry irritation bordering on quiet rage and, the boy wondered if she was going to curse him out, or even punch him. But she did neither. Instead, the sorceress threw her napkin on the table and stood. "Excuse me, I need to use the restroom."

And she stormed away.

Devlin looked down at his food, feeling somehow responsible for her foul mood.

Reaching across the table, Ben placed a comforting hand over Devlin's much smaller one. Devlin looked up at the older man. He still wasn't used to this. All the comfort and emotional support, and easy casual physical affection. Kevin rarely every touched him -not even to hold his hand crossing the street- how did these Tennysons do it? Hold a hand or touch a shoulder without feeling scared or unsure? And hugging! How did people even do that!?

"Its not you she's mad at." Ben told him. "Its just this situation. Kevin... Gwendolyn and Kevin... there's a lot of history there. Just as much as between me and Kevin, only... different."

Devlin assumed as much.

"I've only ever seen Aunt Gwendolyn act like this whenever someone brings up her baby." Kenny volunteered from his seat next to Devlin.

"Her what?" The Osmosian looked at the other boy. He didn't know Gwendolyn Tennyson had any children. If she did, why weren't they here sharing the the family dinner? If it was a baby, Devlin was sure the restaurant would provide a high chair.

"Kenny..." Ben warned from the other side of the table. "Devlin might not be ready to hear this. We have to take things slow."

But slow wasn't Kenny's style and he continued his explanation, ignoring his father's warning. "Yeah. She doesn't really talk about it a lot -it makes her too sad- but a little bit before I was born, Aunt Gwendolyn and her husband had a baby. But something happened to it. It died, or was kidnapped, or she lost it, or something -I don't know. Like I said, she doesn't talk about it. But she's got a nasty scar on her belly from where the doctor had to cut it out of her."

That just raised so many more questions.

Devlin didn't even know Gwendolyn Tennyson was married. Where was her husband? Shouldn't he be here with them? Or did they divorce after she lost the baby? That was a thing that grown-ups did, right? Break-up after a tragedy because one or both of them just couldn't deal. Then he remembered Ben's comment about 'history' between Gwendolyn and Kevin, and an uncomfortable thought occurred to him.

"Did- did my dad... _kill_ them?"

That would certainly explain why neither baby nor husband were present anymore -and why Gwendolyn was so, so, so angry about it still. Years later and here she was, having dinner with the son of the man who killed her family.

"No." Ben assured him very firmly, a gently sympathetic -almost pitting- look on his face. "No, they're both still very much alive, just... Its complicated. I _will_ tell you, but when you're ready."

Gwendolyn eventually returned to the table and the rest of the meal was eaten in an awkward silence. The only other words that were exchanged was when they were brought the bill and Ben offered to cover it.

"No, I wanted to come here. I'll pay." Gwendolyn waved him off, taking out her credit card.

"Then at least let me cover tip." Ben suggested. "I understand this is very emotional for you and-"

"Ben, let me feed him, at least!" The sorceress snapped at the Hero with a venom no one at the table expected. She passed the bill will with the credit card to the server with a strained smile and they hurried away to get her a receipt.

After exiting the restaurant there was another awkward pause. Gwendolyn shifted her weight from foot to foot, arms crossed over her chest. She avoided eye-contact when she asked, "So... I assume Devlin will be staying at Plumbers HQ with you."

"Do you wanna spend the night at Headquarters too?" Ben offered. "You just got back and... I'll understand if you don't want to go home to an empty house."

She cast an odd -almost longing- look at Devlin before turning her attention back to Ben. "Its not an empty house. Zed's there! Besides,I... I think I'd rather be alone right now. I- I'll see you later." The grown ups hugged goodbye -seriously, what was with all the hugging in this family?- and Devlin heard her whisper. "Keep me informed, okay."

"I will." Ben promised, also whispering. "I can't even imagine what you must be going through-"

"Don't!" She pushed him away. "I'll see you again tomorrow. I have to check in at Headquarters tomorrow anyway."

She left.

Devlin was even more confused than he was before.

…

The next day, Kenny went off to school, Ben went off to patrol the city, and Devlin was left in the care of Great-Grandpa Max.

He sat at the breakfast table, contemplating the words 'foster' and 'adopted', and reflecting on their similar but vitally different meanings, and wondered about himself and his place in the Tennyson family.

Great-Grandpa Max set a mug of hot co-co down in front of him -with extra marshmallows. Kenny rarely got hot co-co at the breakfast table, never mind with marshmallows (to much sugar for him, apparently). Devlin looked up at the older man, not understanding a reason behind the sudden special treatment and being suspicious because of it. Grown-up never did nice things unless they wanted something.

"So, I heard you met Gwendolyn yesterday." Max sat down at the kitchen table across from the boy.

"I did." Devlin confirmed, still not understanding.

"What did you think of her?" Asked the old man.

Ah. So it was information he wanted. That was the reason for the special hot co-co. Grown-ups never did anything nice without expecting something in return. The Tennysons just happened to do nice things and expect smaller, lesser, and easier things in return. The Osmosian reached for the mug of co-co and plucked a slightly melted marshmallow off the surface and popped it in his mouth. "She seemed like she wanted to be nice, but... she's also really mad -like, deeply mad- about something."

Devlin thought about mentioning that Kenny already told him about how Gwendolyn lost her husband and baby -and though nobody explicitly said it, Devlin got the distinct feeling that the event was directly connected to his father. Ben said Kevin didn't kill either of them. He was very sure they were both still alive. Maybe they were both pulled into the Null Void with Kevin? If that was the case, why hadn't Ben just pulled them out by now? Taking another sip of his co-co, the Osmosian decided that he didn't really feel like trying to figure it out. Ben said he'd tell Devlin when he was ready. Until then, it was Gwendolyn's problem. Grown-up problems were none of his business.

Max cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. "She... she's had to accept some unpleasant realities in her life..."

Not knowing what to say to that, Devlin just sipped his hot co-co so that he didn't have to speak.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence after that. Neither really knowing what to say to the other.

It drew on up until Devlin had almost drained his co-co. When he put the empty cup down, Max stood and refilled it. Two helpings of hot chocolate! When Kenny rarely ever got one! What was going on here?

Max sat back down.

"Devlin..." The old man began again, drumming the fingers of his artificial hand on the table because he didn't know what else to do with his hands. "Did Kevin ever tell you... Did Kevin talk about your mother ever?"

More interrogation. That was what was going on. This time the subject of the questions was something the boy did not want to think about. Devlin didn't want to invest any more emotion in either his father or his obscure and nameless mother. He stared at his reflection in the co-co. The silence between them was palpable. But Max did expect some kind of answer.

"He told me why we didn't live with her." He finally decided on. ...And for the first time in his life, Devlin found himself actually thinking about the way that was phrased. ' _We don't live with her_ ', not ' _she doesn't live with us_ '. That was how Kevin always said it. Devlin never thought about it before.

"Why didn't you live with her?" Max asked the obvious follow-up question, and it was exactly the question Devlin didn't want to invest to much in thinking about.

He avoided eye-contact. Staring once again at his own dark reflection in the co-co. If he had been looking up at the older man, the Osmosian might have seem the expression of calm but sober confirmation of his face that would have told Devlin that Max already knew the answer to his question. He just wanted to know if Devlin knew. Just how much did Devlin know? How much did Kevin tell him and how much did he hold back?

Devlin toon his hands off the ceramic mug and balled them into fists under the table instead.

"He said I was bad for her." The boy snarled. He was glad his fists were already under the table. If the Osmosian had still been holding his mug, he was sure he might have shattered it. "He said that when I was younger I couldn't control my powers and absorbed her and nearly killed her. So he took me away so that I wouldn't be dangerous anymore. Then other things happened, and he went crazy, and ended up in the Null Void, and ended up with 11,000 powers, and... I wonder if he even remembers her anymore."

Max stood a second time. Coming around the table, he put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. His artificial hand. Devlin didn't know why, but the cool, impersonal metal was much more comfortable than if he'd used his real hand. The Osmosian was still getting used to casual touched of affection or comfort. A warm hand made him feel anxious, like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in return. But a cold metal hand was just that -cold. Devlin understood cold. He patted Max's artificial hand to let the older man know that he appreciated the gesture.

Max gave him one last reassuring squeeze, before letting go and sitting back down. He had raised two children and three grandchildren, he understood when children needed cuddling, and when they needed space.

After a pause, he asked an entirely different question.

"You seem able to control your powers now." He observed. "Would you like to live with your mother?"

So, that was why Ben was only fostering him and hadn't adopted him. They never planned to keep him. They were going to shunt him to the side the first chance they got. Off onto his biological mother. A nameless, faceless woman he had no memories of. Devlin wanted to resent them for it. But try as he might, all he felt was ambivalence. On the one hand, he did legitimately want to know more about his mother. Who she was. Did she love him? What was she like? Did she like some of the things he liked? Etc. But, at the same time, this was a woman loved Kevin Levin -or if not loved him, at least liked him enough to hop in bed with him. A woman who chose to carry Kevin's spawn to term and birth it. A woman who let Kevin take said spawn away, and never tried to find him again. Was that the kind of woman Devlin wanted to know? Was that the kind of woman Devlin wanted to live with.

Did he even have the right to want something different? Or was that just the lot he got and he should learn to live with it.

Devlin didn't know.

But he did know one thing. He didn't know who she was, and the Tennysons couldn't make him live with her if they didn't know who she was either. It was kinda hard to find someone when you didn't even know who it was you were looking for.

"I don't know who she is." Admitted the Osmosian, thinking that would be the end of it.

Max offered him a gentle smile. It was the kind of smile grown-up gave when they thought they were leading a kid to the answer to a question they hadn't asked. Like they were helping the kid figure something out, when all they were really doing was just being frustrating.

"We've known Kevin since he was eleven years old." Max told him. "That's almost all his life. And, all his life, Kevin E. Levin has only ever loved _one_ woman. I know who your mother is, Devlin. But its up to you whether or not you want to know too."

Devlin might have actually considered the offer. Did he really want to, not only meet his mother, but to live with her too? It was something to think about.

But he didn't get the chance to -because at that exact moment, the wall seemed to crumble away. Discoloring, rusting, chipping away in dusty flakes as if it had just simply decomposed. Standing in the gap where the wall used to be was the dark, steely gray form of a Chronosapien, his eyes and jaw-grill both glowing red.

Great-Granpa Max shot to his feet. "Maltruant!"

…

Gwendolyn was on patrol with Ben.

She really didn't have to. True, she was a sworn in officer of the Plumbers, but her actual day job was a High Magus who worked in collaboration with the Plumbers on cases that were magical or supernatural in nature. Since there was no such case open at the moment, Gwendolyn did not need to patrol the city with her cousin. She could sit in her boring office and do boring paperwork -like she usually liked to do.

But today the sorceress wanted to beat something up. She needed the cathartic release of her bare fist colliding with somebody's face. (A trait that had rubbed off on her from her husband.) So, she stuck with Ben on his patrol -because, anyone who knew Ben, knew that he was a magnet for trouble (whether he intended to be or not).

Ben -in the form of Jetray- flew over the city with Gwendolyn -using a flight spell- next to him.

"How could he not know?" She was demanding -not really expecting an answer, just demanding of the universe. "How could Kevin not tell him?"

"I don't know." Jetray informed her even though she already knew that he knew just as little as she did. "I honestly don't even know how present Kevin was that whole time. Kevin might not have ever told him just because they might not have gotten much time to actually talk." A pause. "And you know how hard it is to get Kevin to talk even when he does have the time."

Gwendolyn ignored that last bit, instead focusing in on the first part of her cousin's statement. "What do you mean you don't think Kevin was present in Devlin's life!?"

If his wings weren't attached to his arms, and he weren't using his arms to fly, Jetray might have shrugged. Instead he gave an odd little head-tilt. "Its just... Devlin doesn't seem all that used to being around other people, and if you go to hug him, he tenses up -like he doesn't know whats happening or isn't sure what he's supposed to do. I don't think Kevin held him very much either."

She bit the inside of her cheek at that statement. Gwendolyn also noticed how the boy tensed up when she hugged him last night, his aura spiking with sudden anxiety -almost like he was sacred. At the time, she chalked it up to the fact that she was -essentially- a stranger to him. Being suddenly hugged by a stranger you were just meeting for the first time did tend to make even average, well adjusted people nervous. But Ben was implying that Kevin downright neglected Devlin. Gwendolyn growled low and threatening in her throat. "I swear, the next time I see Kevin, I am going to _kill_ him!"

Ben might have been about to say more, but at that moment both his and Gwendolyn's plumbers badges pinged with an alert. Jetray couldn't look at his without landing, so Gwendolyn pulled her own off her belt and projected the message for both of them.

"Its Maltruant again." She read. "You feel up to fighting a Chronosapien today?"

Jetray gave her an odd look. "Do _you_ feel up to fighting a Chronosapien today?"

The sorceress growled again. "Sure." She shrugged. "Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll fuck-up time so badly that Kevin Levin was never born and I ended up marrying someone decent instead."

Jetray only scoffed at the idea. "With your taste in men, Red, you would have married Michael Morningstar."

"Shut-up, Ben! Nobody asked you!" But that was just surface anger. She wouldn't admit it, but Ben was probably right. With her unrepentantly terrible taste in men, Kevin Ethan Levin really, honestly, actually, and truthfully was the best possible partner for her. (And wasn't that just a tragic commentary.)

They flew off together to find -and presumably stop- the trouble.

Maltruant was attacking the Plumbers Headquarters. As a textbook megalomaniac who wanted to rule over all time and space he would need to remove the one thing standing in his way. Namely, the Hero of the Universe: Ben Tennyson. Easiest way to find Ben Tennyson: Attack Plumbers Headquarters where be both works and lives.

"Things like this are the reason I stopped asking Kai why she spends so much time away." Jetray sighed as he watched the Rouge Chronosapien tear into his home.

Gwendolyn was in a far less reflective mood. "Devlin's in there!"

She dove at Maltruant, knocking him off his feet, but also deeper into the building.

She was glad she did, because only after the Chronosapian was out of the way did she see that he had been right on top of Grandpa Max -and Devlin! His dark eyes went wide at finding himself saved by her. Apparently, the boy wasn't used to being rescued. That was another thing Gwendolyn was going to punch Kevin in the face for!

"Are you hurt?" She demanded of both of them. Devlin was just an inexperienced child and Grandpa Max was to old for this sort of thing.

"You don't have to save me!" The boy shouted back at her with a touch more frustration than Gwendolyn thought was necessary.

After living with an insane Kevin for most of his formative life, she didn't expect Devlin to know how to express gratitude all that well. She did not expect him to be flat out ungrateful.

"Kenny told me how you lost a kid, and Ben says there's a history between you and my dad!" He continued, voice higher than it needed to be. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Kevin's the reason you don't have a kid anymore -and I'm his son. You don't have to be nice to me!"

"Devlin, that's not..." That's not it at all! -She wanted to say.

But at that exact moment, Maltruant recovered from the blow that sent him flying and he aimed a temporal blast at the sorceress. They both saw it at the same time, but Devlin moved faster -with a Kineceleran speed inherited from the Omnitrix passed, through Kevin. He pushed Gwendolyn out of the way just in time, saving the sorceress from the attack.

"Look out!"

But he was so focused on her, that Devlin failed to save himself. Instead of Gwendolyn getting caught in the blast, the Osmosian was.

Gone in a flash of light and temporal distortion. Not even a speck of dust left where he had stood. Just gone.

…

When Devlin awoke, he didn't know where he was.

But that was the least of his problems, because while he might not know his location, he definitely knew who he was with!

Ignoring a dizziness and disorientation that was entirely new to him, the Osmosian cracked his eyes open and the first thing he saw was an X-shaped scar marking a chin that was framed in ebony black hair. Kevin! Kevin was leaning over him!

Devlin didn't think, he just reacted.

" _No! I won't got back!"_ And he kicked -and kicked _hard_. The heel of his boot connecting with the side of the older man's face somewhere near the eye.

"Arg!" Kevin snarled and staggered backwards, one hand going to his injured face. "What the hell?"

That was when Devlin finally paused. It looked like Kevin, but... something was slightly off. He looked... younger. His forehead didn't have as many scowl lines, his mouth was smoother and absent of the disapproving frown Devlin had come to recognize as the expression his father reserved just for him. And that voice when he spoke. It was Kevin's voice. Deep and low. But it lacked the danger quality the younger Osmosian was used to his father speaking with. In fact, this Kevin sounded almost... _indignant_.

As if that weren't disorienting enough, drawn by Devlin's outburst and Kevin's snarl, three other people entered the room. A Revonnahgander that Devlin had never seen before, and two other humans -male and female. The man had auburn-brown hair and luminescent -almost unearthly- green eyes. But even without the distinctive eyes, Devlin would have recognized him by the watch on his arm. And older version of the Omnitrix. That meant that the red-headed woman with the short pixie cut and the same luminescent eyes next to him had to be Gwendolyn.

Devlin would have jumped for joy! They were here to rescue him! Except that they were not the version of Ben 10,000 and High Magus Gwendolyn that he was familiar with either. Like the Kevin he'd just kicked, they looked about a decade too young. Gwendolyn's hair was too short. Ben was missing his thick and striking hero-beard.

"What the heck is going on here?" Demanded Gwendolyn, placing her fists on her hips with a huff. A huff! As if Kevin 11,000 not only wasn't a threat to them, but wasn't even their enemy to begin with!

Devlin was struck speechless.

Kevin jabbed an accusatory finger at him. " _He kicked me in the face!_ "

Ben laughed. Laughed! At Kevin 11,000. As if everything was cool. As if the psychotic Osmosian didn't go around attacking people for the slightest perceived insult. As if they were friends! "Well, can you blame him? Waking up to a scary mug like yours."

"Don't start with me, Tennyson!" Growled the Osmosian. The words sounded like a threat. But the tone was closer to banter. Banter! Devlin didn't know how to interpret it.

"Oh alright. Truce." Ben laughed. Laughed again! As if everything was one big giant joke and there was no danger of Kevin flying off the rails and killing everyone in the room. He turned to Gwendolyn. "You wanna take care of your husband before he gets really fussy. Now that the kid's awake, Rook and I can figure out where he came from."

"Sure." Gwendolyn smiled in exasperation and crossed the space between her and Kevin. She took the Osmosian by the hand. "C'mon, you big baby."

That was when Devlin noticed that they were wearing matching rings on the third fingers of their left hands. Wedding rings. Gwendolyn Tennyson was married to Kevin Levin!? Gwendolyn's husband was Kevin! But... that had to mean... unless Kevin... Devlin didn't even know what to think anymore. He fell back onto what he'd been laying on when he first woke up -which looked to be some kind of exam table in a standard issue Plumbers infirmary. He was disoriented and very, very confused.

He cried. Actually cried. Devlin hated to cry -especially in front of people- it was a sign of weakness. But he was so twisted up inside with feelings he couldn't even name -never mind understand- that he just gave into the cathartic release the tears brought. "What's going on!?"

Ben and the one he called Rook exchanged a look.

"We were actually hoping you could tell us that." Admitted the Revonahgander.

…


	2. Kevin and Gwen's Start Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter Two: Kevin & Gwen's Start Point

Folding fitted sheets was a pointless exercise -in Kevin's opinion. But Gwendolyn refused to let him just ball them up and throw them in the moving box.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything," he began as the two of them folded the sheet in half, then in half again, "but why are your parents giving _us_ the house?"

"Because," she began in that tone she used whenever she was explaining something that shouldn't need an explanation, "now that my dad's finally retired, my parents are moving to Florida. But they don't wanna sell the house, they want to keep it in the family."

"No, I get that part." And Kevin was not complaining in the least. Frank and Natalie Tennyson had a really nice house. Three bedroom (four if you count the first floor office), three bathrooms, large kitchen with attached dining room, spacious backyard, and -Kevin's personal favorite feature- a generously sized attached garage. A two car garage with just enough surplus space for him to set up a small work area to tinker with his alien tech. So, Kevin was definitely not complaining that his in-laws were giving his wife their house. "I just don't get why they're giving it to us and not your brother. I mean, he is their first born."

Gwendolyn only shrugged as she took the fitted sheet from him and finished folding it on her own. She packed the item in a box with the rest of the set. "Ken's living in Boston with his husband. Why would they move back to Bellwood just for a free house when both their jobs and all their friends are there?"

Kevin had to admit, that did make sense. Not to mention, the insurance rates were a hell of a lot better in Boston compared to Bellwood. Insurance rates were a hell of a lot better _everywhere_ but Bellwood, on account of the simple fact that Ben Tennyson lived in Bellwood and did not live anywhere else. No other city on earth recommended home owners buy 'Alien Insurance'. That was one detail of this move he was not looking forward to. The insurance premiums he and Gwendolyn would have to pay on the place.

"Besides," she added, "we might need the extra space more than Ken will."

"What for?" Kevin asked, not understanding. Gwendolyn could never let him tinker with dangerous alien technology in the house, and aside from keeping at least one spare room as a guest bedroom for when her parents or Ken and his husband came to visit, the Osmosian couldn't imagine what they might need the extra space for? "Its just the two of us -and Zed. What do we need the extra space for? Oh, Gawd! You're not gonna move your library from Friedkin into the house, are you? I am not carrying those heavy books!"

A pause. He jabbed a thumb behind his back at the already packed boxes of her personal library she kept at home. Fiction and non-fiction she'd had since she first learned to read, textbooks she never sold back to the student store, and a small collection of cookbooks neither one of them have ever even cracked open.

"I will carry _those_ heavy book." Kevin promised. "But that's it!"

With a huff, Gwendolyn closed up the box they were packing together and taped it shut. "Its not always gonna be just the two of us, ya know."

The Osmosian paused to think.

"What? Are you imagining Tennyson's wife getting fed up with him and kicking him out." Kevin snorted. "Alright. Your cousin can crash with us for a little while, but-"

A gentle smile on her face, Gwendolyn crossed the space between them, placing a chase kiss on his lips. "That's not what I mean." She muttered into the hallow of his throat, pressing her body against his in a not-so-chase way, fluttering her lashes up at him. "What about when we have children?"

Placing both hands on her shoulders, Kevin took a step back. Holding her slightly away from himself so that he could stare her directly in the eyes. "That is a _very_ bad idea!"

"What? Why?" She blinked at him.

The Osmosian just continued to stare at her, an inexplicable expression of his face. As if _he_ couldn't understand, why _she_ didn't understand, why having children with him might be a bad idea. "Have you _met_ me!?"

Not the kind of question you want to be asking a woman you'd been married to for several years, dated for many years before that, and had known since you were eleven years old.

"Yes, and I think you'd be a great father!" The moment that statement was out of her mouth Gwendolyn paused, reconsidered what she'd just said -this was Kevin, after all- quickly amended. "You'd make a good father." Another pause. "Well, you'd be alright."

Wow, from 'great' to just 'alright' in less than a minute. Apparently she _had_ met him.

But the quality of his parenting ability was not the thing the Osmosian was worried about. The fact that his Anodite wife didn't foresee any possible problems she might have raising an Osmosian child was the thing that worried him. Kevin opened his mouth to list all of the reasons why her having _his_ child was a bad idea. Or more accurately, to _begin_ listing them -because there were to many reasons to list them all in one conversation.

Except at that exact moment both their Plumbers badges pinged an alert. That halted any serious conversation before it could even begin.

It also halted the packing for the day.

Kevin sighed. "Which box did you put my proto-tech armor in again?"

…

Rook and Ben were fighting Dr. Animo when Kevin's invulnerable 'everything proof' car pulled up. The Osmosian stepped out of the driver's seat. He was already annoyed for unrelated reasons when they got the call. But to show up at the scene and find that it was just one of Ben's childhood -level one- bad guys, now he was really irritated.

"You called us out here for the nutty vet!" Kevin snapped.

"He's a geneticist." Gwendolyn corrected, climbing out of the passenger seat.

Both of them had to quickly jump out of the way as one of the good doctor's genetically altered creatures pounced on the car. It bounced on its tires, but was otherwise unharmed. The Osmosian rolled away, absorbing some of the asphalt of the street, covering himself in dark stoney armor. Gwendolyn was far more graceful, doing a sort of backflip-handstand out of the way. She shot a ball of raw mana at the creature, sending it stumbling off the car directly in the path of the armor-clad Osmosian who was very protective of his car.

Nobody noticed, since they were all occupied with Animo-creatures of their own, but Gwendolyn also cast a small but quick protection spell around her mid-section. Everything below her diaphragm and above her thighs was heavily shielded in magical barriers to protect it against concussive trauma.

"Badge alerts are pinged automatically." Rook informed Kevin as soon as the Revonnahgander had extricated himself from his own enemy creature. "We didn't actually call you."

Rook was being polite and diplomatic. Ben, on the other hand, was not so tactful with the Osmosian. He -in the form of Humongosour- punched Dr. Animo in the face, knocking the mad scientist unconscious instantly. Then he turned his attention to Kevin. "What bug crawled up your ass? I thought you were all excited getting a free house from Uncle Frank, and you and Gwen getting a perfect fetishized 50s lifestyle." A pause. "Oh. Did the fight interrupt you two having sex? Because I totally get that. Ya know, lately Kai and I haven't really had the chance to-"

"Tennyson, nobody cares about your crappy lack of a sex-life." Kevin cut him off.

Humungasour threw his hands up in a placating gesture. "Okay, jeez, sorry. I didn't realize you were on your man-period again."

Both Gwendolyn and Rook rolled their eyes at the pair. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the Hero of the Universe and the Osmosian were best friends. The way they fought -sometimes with words, sometimes _literally_ fought- with each other, you'd think they were bitter enemies with a rivalry reaching all the way back to grievances deeply seeded in their childhoods. (Except they were that too.)

Ignoring the two of them for the moment, Rook took out of the new Null Grenades. A pocket sized device that could trap an enemy within it so that they could be more easily -and safely- captured and transported back to Plumbers' Headquarters to be released into the Null Void. It was a brand new invention -one of Bulkic and Driba's ideas that hadn't yet gone horribly, horribly wrong and nearly killed everyone (yet)- and was still in the testing phase. But -thus far- on weak enemies and small fry like Dr. Animo, the Null Grenades seemed to work fairly well.

Rook tossed the grenade at the unconscious Dr. Animo. It bounced off his chest for a second, then the villain was enveloped in golden light and vanished. All that was left in his place was the Null Grenade, and when the Revonnahgander picked up the grande again, he saw a slightly distorted figure of the still unconscious Animo inside it.

"I am very impressed by how well these things work." He turned to smile at the others, only to realize that nobody was paying attention.

Ben and Kevin were still bickering and Gwendolyn was trying her best to play mediator and broker a peace between them.

"You wanna talk man-period, Tennyson? Okay." Kevin was saying. "Lets talk about last year around Max's birthday when you were being such an insufferable asshole that my wife felt the need to travel back in time, kidnap your younger self, and show you just how much of an asshat you really are! No wonder your wife doesn't wanna sleep with you. Between you and your ego, there probably isn't enough room for her in the bed!"

Massaging her temples in an attempt to stave off an on-coming stress headache, Gwendolyn said, "Kevin, that was uncalled for. You know Kai is out of town right now, helping to clean up that oil spill in Blue Ridge that no one is talking about."

But her attempt to pacify her husband and diffuse the fight only gave Ben an opening to get in with a dig of his own. "Me? What about you!? Between you, your ego, your unresolved issues of self-loathing, your criminal past, and still inconsistent memories of what you did with your life before we crashed your deal at the rail yard, how does Gwen manage to fit in that bed with you? Her magic?"

"Whoa! Okay." Suddenly, Gwendolyn was rethinking her plans of making peace.

"Way to shoot yourself in the foot, Tennyson." The Osmosian scoffed. "By dragging her into this, you just pushed Gwendolyn over onto my side!"

She crossed her arms over her chest. Gwendolyn usually didn't like taking sides on Kevin and Ben's arguments. But that was when they didn't use her as fodder for their insults. Besides, bringing up Kevin's past which he still felt deep guilt over, and the incomplete memories from his time with the Rooters that he still struggles was completely inappropriate.

Rook came up to the trio. "What are you even fighting over?"

All three of them turned their eyes to the Revonnahgander. There was a pause.

Then Ben jabbed an accusatory finger at Kevin. "He started it!"

That was true. Kevin was already in a bad mood when they pulled up. Not so much angry but... tense. Anxious almost. Rook had lived on Earth for almost a decade now, but he was still getting used to the intricacies of human relationships. Had the Osmosian and the Anodite been having a quarrel before they came to help Ben with the fight? Unlike Ben, Rook knew better than to ask.

Kevin threw up his hands in defeat. "All I wanted to do today was shlep heavy boxes from my tiny apartment into my wife's nice big house and not have to worry about you, your monster battles, or anything else."

Ben, having finally matured past the age of ten, and therefore able to pick up on other people's subtle frustrations, latched onto that last one. "What else do you have to worry about?"

"What?" Kevin blinked.

"What?" Echoed Gwendolyn. She looked at her husband, placing one soothing hand on his arm. "Baby, if you're worried about something you should have told me sooner."

He looked at her with some sort of pleading look. No... pleading wasn't quite right. But something in that genre. The Osmosian pulled his arm out of her hand. This was not a conversation he wanted to have in the middle of a battle-torn street, right in front of Ben and his alien partner. "Not now, Babe."

"Oh?" Ben raised an eyebrow. "Trouble in paradise? Is the infamously mercurial Kevin Levin having trouble maintaining a stable, functioning relationship?"

Except that Kevin had successfully maintained his relationship with Gwendolyn for several years before they were married and had been married to her for over two years already. So, clearly, it was not his relationship with his wife that the Osmosian had trouble keep 'stable'. But that didn't mean that stability -in a general sense- wasn't something that he struggled with daily. That was sort of what he was worried about.

Not his daily struggles with stability and sanity, but whether or not his instability and insanity might be passed on to a possible offspring. Gwendolyn wanted to have children. Kevin did not want to have to save his wife from his hypothetical son or daughter because said hypothetical child had gone off the rails and tried to absorb its own mother. That was what Kevin was really worried about.

But that was not a conversation to have right in front of Ben.

"None of your business, Tennyson!" Kevin snapped.

Since Gwendolyn didn't seem to be doing an effective job of diffusing their argument, Rook decided to step in and try his hand at being the voice of reason. "Since Kevin and Gwendolyn are here, why don't we all put this to the side for now and take Dr. Animo in?" He suggested, tossing the Null Grenade up and catching it again. "And we can all relax over a cup for the terrible coffee we have at Headquarters."

Kevin threw his arms up in defeat. "Fine. Whatever."

"No coffee for me, thanks." Gwendolyn smiled at the Revonnahgander's ability to pacify her husband and cousin. "I'm trying not to do caffeine anymore."

…

As they pulled into the Plumber's Headquarters motor-pool, Ben leaned over to Rook -whispering in spite of the fact that they were the only ones in the proto-TRUK. "Lemme take the Null Grenade to the Void Chamber. Do you think you can get Kevin to open up about why he's manstruating today? Like, take apart a car or something and get him comfortable and distracted enough that he starts talking."

The Revonnahgander blinked at his companion in disbelief. "That is a remarkably subtly plan coming from you. Are you feeling ill?"

"I can come up with good subtle-type plans, ya know!" The Hero of the Universe was insulted.

Rook very tactfully chose not to contest his partner's claim. Ben was not bad a coming up with plans in a general sense of planning. But low-key arts, subtlety, and finesse were not his strong suits. He belonged to the 'hit a problem head on' school of thought -which, coincidentally, was also the same school of thought that Kevin subscribed to. It was one of the reasons they were friends.

"Alright." Agreed the Revonnahgander as he climbed out of the driver's seat. "I'll ask him to help me service the proto-TRUK. The engine is a little overdue on some basic maintenance."

"Overdue maintenance?" Kevin was already out of his own car and very gentlemanly holding the passenger door open for his wife. He gave both Ben and Rook a scandalized look. "You never wanna neglect your Ride! Especially if its just basic stuff!"

Ben jumped on his frienemy's comment, seeing it as an opportunity. "Maybe you should help Rook with that. Make sure it gets done right."

Except that last comment succeeded in insulting his partner. "Wait, are you implying that I don't know how to preform a simple oil change and tune-up on my own vehicle?"

"Well, I- uh. Crap!" It didn't take him long to realize he'd stepped in it.

Gwen sighed. Deciding she had waited patiently while the boys bantered at each other long enough. She cut between the three of them, taking her cousin by the arm and dragged him out of the motor-pool. "C'mon. Lets let Kevin and Rook wax their Rides together while you and I turn in that Null Grenade."

They watched the cousins' retreating backs. When the pair was out of the hanger, Kevin turned to the Revonnahgander with one incredulous eyebrow raised. "You seriously haven't given that thing a tune-up in how long?"

"I feel the need to remind you that being partnered with Ben Tennyson can be a full time job in and of itself." Rook snapped testily.

He liked Ben, really he did, and he like being partnered with him, really he liked that too. But Ben was an adult approaching thirty now and -sometimes- still needed to be handled like a child. Sometimes Rook still felt more like a babysitter than a partner. Sometimes he just didn't have the time to do simple things like take apart his alien truck and put it back together again better than it was before. Kevin was lucky his partner was also his mate and a mature and responsible Magister of the Plumbers as well as a sorceress that -if rumors were true- was being reviewed as a candidate for the coveted position of High Magus.

Meanwhile, in the Headquarters break room, Ben pored himself a cup of coffee while Gwen fished out a bottle of Gatorade.

"So, how are things with you and Kai?" She asked, twisting off the cap and taking a sip of her sports drink.

He glanced at her. The question sounded suspiciously like she was trying to preemptively change the subject from her and Kevin, to him and his own wife. Gwen was smart, and -unlike him- she actually was very good at the practiced art of subtlety. Sighing to himself, Ben replied. "Its weird. She says she wants to start trying to have a baby, but then runs off to another state for some bleeding-heart crusade."

"She's protecting sacred lands." Gwen reminded him.

"I know that!" Ben snapped. "But its hard for us to make a baby when we're not even in the same city! Kinda hard to have sex when you're not in the same room, Gwen!"

"You never thought about flying over there for a quicky?" She suggested. "Right before my doctoral review -for my first doctorate- Kevin showed up to wish me good luck." A pause in which she sucked on her bottom lip. "Very, very good luck. Kevin's very good at what he does. Then again, he does work with his hands all day. He's very skilled at-"

"Oh my gawd! I will pay you _not_ to finish that sentence!" Ben cut her off, dropping his paper coffee cup and putting his hands over his ears. He did not have to hear details about how skilled Kevin Levin was at finger-banging his cousin whom he grew up with like a sister.

"And his dick's pretty great too." Gwen grinned an evil grin at just how uncomfortable her relationship with her husband still made her emotionally stinted and immature cousin.

Ben groaned, dragging his hands down his face and turning his eyes to the ceiling as he moaned. "Where is a hellbent planet-eater from a parallel dimension when I need one?"

Anything to get him out of this uncomfortable conversation with his cousin.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?" She teased, knowing exactly how uncomfortable she was making her cousin. "By the way, when Rook does get Kevin to tell him why he's been so pissy today, would you mind telling me too. Everything was great earlier up until he suddenly just flipped and turned snarly for no reason."

Ben's eyebrows came down, suddenly no longer amused. Kevin was genuinely a good person, but he was capable of flipping as suddenly as a coin the instead becoming an unrepentant, sociopathic, occasionally sadistic, villain. So when Gwen described a change in her husband's behavior as 'sudden', it was cause for concern. "Was he absorbing anything when this happened? Or standing close to an energy source, like a power socket, of some alien tech he didn't quite understand yet?"

"No." Gwen just shook her head. "We were just packing up the apartment. And talking about why Mom and Dad gave us the house instead of Ken. Then he got all pissy."

"He got pissy because Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie are giving you a house for free? That doesn't sound like Kevin at all!" The 'serious face' eyebrows were gone now and replaced with a one-up, one-down expression of confused disbelief.

"I know, right!" She nodded. "It doesn't make any sense!"

Ben paused again, that expression of confused disbelief shifting into accusation and suspicion. "You didn't ask him to move your library from Friedkin over to the knew house, did you? Because that's a bit much, even for him. I totally understand Kevin being pissy about having to carry all those heavy magical books."

Gwen huffed. "No. My magical library is staying at Friedkin. Honestly, the last thing I told him before we got the call for Animo was, I told him that we need the extra space more than Ken does."

Ben looked at her.

"Why?"

Now it was Gwen's turn to raise one eyebrow in confused disbelief. Seriously, how could Ben not get it. "Ya know how Kai wants to have a baby." She told him. "Well, I wanna have children too. We can't raise a little Anodite or Osmosian in our tiny one bedroom apartment. We need a house."

"Wait..." Ben said slowly. His brain not fully processing what he was hearing. "You wanna have children... with Kevin... With Kevin...!? Kevin Levin. You want that guy to both father your children and have a hand in raising them." He paused to suck on his teeth. "Really think about that for a second Gwen. Kevin. Children. Kevin. Responsibility. Kevin. Consistency. Kevin. Tantrums. Just think about that."

Now she was getting annoyed. Who else would Gwen want to have children with besides her husband! She crossed the space between them and shoved an angry finger in Ben's face. "Well, ya know what! You and Kevin can say whatever the hell you want, but the decision's made. _Its happening!_ So you all better get used to the idea!"

"Damn." Ben blinked at her outburst. "Looks like Kevin isn't the only one who's menstruating today."

The sorceress threw her arms up in frustration. "Unbelievable!"

Ben opened his to argue that Gwendolyn was usually very level headed and rational, not given over very quickly to anger or aggression. But the Hero of the Universe changed his mind. If her moods really were swinging that suddenly, then the _last_ thing he wanted to do was get into an argument with her. Ben liked breathing.

"Anyway..." He cast his brain around for something to change the subject. _Anything_ to change the subject.

That was when an explosion shook the building.

Well, Ben wanted a distraction. Ask and you shall receive.

"What was that!?" Gwen spun around.

"Kevin?" Ben suggested, more of an exasperated sigh, really.

Except that the explosion didn't come from the motor-pool where they'd left Kevin with Rook. Gwendolyn turned her attention in the direction of the explosion. Not towards the motor-pool, but to the bull pin -the main chamber. Both Ben and Gwen ran out of the break-room to to discover a number of Plumbers already crowded around... something. Neither Tennyson could see for the bodies blocking their view. They sprinted across the room to the center of the commotion.

It wasn't an attack, or a fight.

"By golly! He looks just like Kevin!" Patelliday gasped.

"Smells like Kevin too." Scout sniffed the air over the center of the circle.

Gwen got to the crowd first, pushing her way between Molly Gunther and Manny Armstrong. She came up short when she saw what was laying unconscious on the chamber floor. Not a 'what', a who. A boy, no older than ten -or eleven- and Patelliday was right, he did look remarkably like Kevin. The same high cheekbones and raven dark hair. Gwendolyn reached down to check his pulse and got a sense of his mana along with it. His aura was similar to Kevin's too. Similar but not exactly the same.

Ben was not looking at the boy, his attention was held by his Omnitrix which was giving him some kind of alert. "There's time travel residue all over him."

"'Time travel residue'? Is that a thing?" Gunther asked.

"'Course it is." Ben assured everyone.

"So, wait... time travel residue... and a kid who looks and smells just like Kevin..." Scout was running through a train of thought out loud. "What if it _is_ Kevin? Like, from the past. He somehow managed to transport himself to the future -uh, present?"

"He's not Kevin." Gwen was lifting the boy up into her arms. He was unconscious, eyes closed. But Upon closer inspection, even without getting a sense of her mana, Gwen could see that his features weren't one-hundred percent Kevin. The cheekbones, chin, and hair were all Kevin. But the shape of his brows looked suspiciously like Gwen's fathers, the set of his ears more like Grandpa Max's. He very clearly had mingled Levin _and Tennyson_ features. And Ben said there was 'time travel residue' around him. "I'm taking him to the infirmary."

Hefting the unconscious boy in her arms, she left the main chamber.

That was about the time Rook appeared with Kevin in tow. "We heard an explosion. Is it an attack? The Incursion?"

"The Rooters again?" Kevin asked.

All eyes in the bull pin turned to him. Blinked. Then the Osmosian was the one who found himself surrounded by a small circle of Plumbers and Plumbers affiliated technicians.

"Levin, have you ever time traveled?"

"Do you remember coming to the present?"

"Gwendolyn said he wasn't you, but he looked just like you!"

It was all the Osmosian could do to stare back at everyone. "What the hell are you all talking about?"

Ben came up beside his confused and hapless frienemy and gave the other man a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "I think you better meet up with Gwen in the infirmary."

"Is she hurt!?" He demanded in his 'why didn't you lead with that you idiotic asshole!?' voice.

"She's fine. She's fine." The Hero of the Universe assured the Osmosian. "Someone just appeared in Headquarters and she took him to the infirmary. Maybe you can help us figure out who he is."

There was the silent question of 'Me?' of the other man's lips, but Kevin didn't ask it out loud. Instead, he turned and sprinted off after his wife and the mysterious intruder she had -apparently- felt the need to rush to the infirmary only moments after they forcibly invaded Plumbers Headquarters. Sometimes, Gwen could be just a little to kind and empathetic for her own good. But then, that was one of the reasons why Kevin loved her so much.

Imagining his kind, empathetic, and loving wife alone with a violent intruder, the Osmosian practically burst through the infirmary door. "Babe!"

"Shh!" Gwen hissed at him.

She was laying out the unconscious figure of -not a great and terrible, planet eating monster- but a small and skinny (a little too skinny) child. Kevin came up short. After that explosion, he imagined the 'intruder' to be one of their old and regular enemies. Vulkanus, Albedo, Vilgax, Darkstar, Charmcaster, or Servantis. He did not expect the intruder to be an undersized and undernourished child, whom was also currently unconscious.

The Osmosian came up short. "Wha-?"

"His vitals are all coming back normal. He's probably just unconscious from shock." She leaned back from the exam table, something that looked suspiciously like a used cotton swab in her hand. She placed the wet swab in a vile and sealed it tightly. "I'm gonna have Blukic and Driba run a quick DNA panel on this sample. Can you watch him? Call me if he wakes up."

"Wait, what?" It was all Kevin could do to blink in confusion at her quickly retreating back.

Not knowing what else to do, the Osmosian crossed the space to lean over the exam table and really get a good look at the intruder that was already seeming to cause him so much confusion.

A child, somewhere around ten or eleven. Way to skinny for his height. With long dark hair and a baby face that didn't quite manage to hide his dimpled chin. But the most striking thing, was the resemblance. Now Kevin understood a little of the others ravings in the bull pin. _'Gwendolyn said he wasn't you, but he looked just like you'. 'Have you ever time traveled?'_ Kevin had time traveled, but never during his really young youth. That didn't start until his teens. This boy was not himself. But even the Osmosian couldn't deny there was a striking resemblance.

"What the actual fuck!?" He found himself demanding of the empty room.

Gwen hadn't missed the resemblance either. She said she was going to run a DNA panel on him.

Curiously, Kevin leaned over the boy, trying to figure out if he might be a relative of some variety or another. Someone he might have glimpsed in one of his mother's photos (or the offspring of someone from one of his mother's photos). Or maybe someone from his still anonymous and obscure father's side of the family. Since Devin Levin never existed, that opened up a whole mess of familial possibilities and relations the Osmosian never really considered. Maybe this kid was a second cousin or something.

The kid gave a groan. He was waking up. Kevin could just ask him.

Eyes blinked open. Dark eyes. A brown so dark they might as well be black -Kevin's eyes. Those eyes so much like Kevin's went wide with shock at seeing the Osmosian leaning over him. Wide with -not shock- fear. Sudden fear.

Kevin could be pretty scary.

" _No! I won't go back!"_ And he kicked -and kicked _hard_. The heel of his boot connecting with the side of the older man's face right on the side of Kevin's eye. If his aim had been just a little off (or maybe _because_ his aim was a little off) he would have kicked the Osmosian directly in the eye.

"Arg!" Kevin snarled and staggered backwards, one hand going to his injured face. "What the hell?"

He staggered backwards, glaring at the kid. Seriously, who wakes up and their first, instant, and instinctual knee-jerk reaction is to kick the person closest to them in the face!? ...Okay, well, Kevin did have a similar instinct during his youth back when he was still confined to Incarsercon in the Null Void. But that was a completely different situation! He was in prison then, okay. It made perfect sense to kick a fucker in the face if you woke up with them over you. But in a Plumbers infirmary, come on. Who was gonna try anything with a kid right in the middle of a Plumber's Headquarters.

Drawn by his outburst, Ben and Rook came dashing into the room, Gwen not far behind them.

"What the heck is going on here?" She demanded, placing her fists on her hips with a huff of irritation. Oh, he was the one she was irritated with? Her husband just got kicked in the face!

Kevin jabbed an accusatory finger at him. " _He kicked me in the face!_ "

Ben laughed. "Well, can you blame him? Waking up to a scary mug like yours."

"Don't start with me, Tennyson!" Growled the Osmosian.

"Oh alright. Truce." Ben laughed again. He turned to Gwen. "You wanna take care of your husband before he gets really fussy. Now that the kid's awake, Rook and I can figure out where he came from."

"Sure." The sorceress smiled in exasperation and crossed the space between her and her husband. She took the Osmosian by the hand. "C'mon, you big baby."

Through all of this, the kid just stared at them all with a strange expression on his face. Horror, shock, confusion, and disbelief all twisting and churning over his face, fighting for control of his expressive muscles. It must have been an enormous emotional strain on the boy, because the moment Kevin and Gwen were out of the room and some version of 'calm' was able to settle over them, he began to cry. His face falling into his hands and he sobbed unrepentantly.

"What's going on!?"

Ben and the one he called Rook exchanged a glance.

"We were actually hoping you could tell us that." Admitted the Revonahgander.

…


	3. Devlin Drops a Bomb, Gwen Drops a Bomb

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter Three: Devlin Drops a Bomb, Gwen Drops a Bomb

Maltruant recovered from the blow that sent him flying, and he aimed a temporal blast at the sorceress. They both saw it at the same time, but Devlin moved faster -with a Kineceleran speed inherited from the Omnitrix, and passed through Kevin. He pushed Gwendolyn out of the way just in time, saving the sorceress from the attack.

"Look out!"

But he was so focused on her, that Devlin failed to save himself. Instead of Gwendolyn getting caught in the blast, the Osmosian was.

Gone in a flash of light and temporal distortion. Not even a speck of dust left where he had stood. Just gone.

Gwendolyn gasped, the sorceress starring at the spot where the boy had been. A deep, guttural, primal roar erupted up from her throat. A gravely violent sound. Not the sort of thing one expected to hear from a human throat. In fact, Ben imagined the snarl as something that was more appropriate coming out of Kevin than his gentle and temperate cousin.

The sorceress rounded on the Chronosapian. No spells. She just lashed out with raw power, encircling Maltruant in tight bonds of mana. She slammed the alien into the floor, snarling. _"Bring him back!"_

The Chronosapien only groaned at the rough treatment, so the Anodite slammed him down again -harder this time.

"Bring him back!" Tears were stinging her eyes now.

Ben -in human form now- knelt down next to the bound and prone form of Maltruant, his expression almost sympathetic. "You can reverse time -I know." He said. "You can bring Devlin back."

Using her mana, Gwendolyn lifted the Chronosapien back up, bringing him face to face with her so that she could glare directly into his eyes when she growled. "That was my _son_ you just vaporized. My _only child_. You will undo what you did and bring him back to me, or so help me... There won't be enough left of _you_ to bring back!"

Ben opened his mouth again. Perhaps to tell the sorceress that she should 'tone it back a notch' again. But he quickly thought better of it. He was there all those years ago when Kevin took Devlin away from her. He -better than most- knew exactly what she was capable of. This _was_ Gwendolyn 'toning it back a notch'. Where her child was concerned, she could be just as violently loving and homicidally protective as her estranged husband.

When Maltruant didn't instantly do as she commanded -or even reply at all- she slammed him back down a third time.

The Chronosapien groaned. "I didn't vaporize him."

"What?" The Anodite lifted him back up enough so that his face plate was no longer grinding against the Headquarters floor.

"I didn't vaporize him." Maltruant repeated. "That attack was temporal displacement, not temporal advancement."

He wasn't instantly aged into dust! He was thrown somewhere else in time! Gwendolyn's heart gave a little flutter that felt suspiciously like relief, and her hard glare broke into an expression of hope. "Then you can bring him back."

"I don't know when he went." The Chronosapien had to inform her.

An admission that earned him another mana-slam into the floor. There was a lovely Maltruant shaped dent in the Headquarters panels by this point.

He groaned again. "But I do know that -whenever he went- he'll show up again in this same spot. Plumbers Headquarters. Or whatever was here before it. Or after it, as the case might be."

There was a beat.

Over Maltruant's prone form, Ben caught Gwendolyn's eyes and held up a Null Grenade. She nodded and pulled back her mana enough so that she wouldn't get pulled in with the Chronosapien. Maltruant vanished in a flash of golden light, sucked down and compressed into the Null Grenade. Ready for safe and easy release into the Null Void.

But later.

Crossing the space between them -a space that was mostly taken up by a Chronosapien shaped hole in the floor- Ben offered his cousin a supportive hug. That whole thing with Kevin and Devlin eleven years ago was probably the worst thing to happen to her in her life. But then, a decade later, when she's reunited with her lost child he's instantly taken from her again. Ben could only imagine what she must be feeling right now. If something like this ever happened to Kenny... He didn't know what he would do...

Gwendolyn pushed him away.

"I have to go to my library." She said.

"What? What for?" The Hero of the Universe asked in confusion. After watching her only child whom she'd been trying to find and get back for eleven years get hurled elsewhere in time, one would think she'd want to have a good cry, not go and re-read all seven Harry Potters.

"I have the Archamada there." She informed him tersely, crossing the space back to the hole in the wall. "It has a time travel spell in it. With a little tweaking, I might be able to use my mana to track him and figure out exactly when he went. Then I can bring him back."

"I guess..." Ben frowned. It had been a little over a decade, but something about Devlin being hurled through time didn't really seem to bother him all that much. He paused for a moment to think. Really think. He and his cousin had had so many zany adventures over the years -many of which included time travel shenanigans. But there was one time, a little over a decade ago that seemed relevant. A dark hair boy the resembled Kevin just a little too closely just appeared in the Headquarters one day. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Gwendolyn demanded. She had no patience at the moment for sanctimonious speeches about patience and thinking before acting. Sanctimonious speeches about patience and thinking before acting were supposed to be her job anyway. She was supposed to be the calm, temperate, and analytical one. But, where her child was concerned, one couldn't always expect a mother to be rational.

Ben had to remind himself that his cousin wasn't going to be her usual cool, calm, and collected self in this matter. He had to be the calm one this time. "Its just... Do you remember eleven years ago-"

"How could I forget!?"

"No. Not that thing elven years ago." Her cousin was quick to clarify. "Before that. I guess, twelve years ago? Eleven years and nine months ago? I don't remember the date exactly, sorry." He realized he was rambling and quickly cleared his throat and got himself back on track. "We were here -at Plumbers HQ- and there was an explosion and some random kid just appeared out of nowhere right in the middle of the bull pin. Well, I might be remembering it wrong, but... I seem to recall he had dark hair in a pony tail, and looked a lot like Kevin."

Ben saw it on her face the moment her memory recalled the incident. Her expression melting from frustration and concern, to skepticism, to realization, and finally relief. She already knew everything would turn out just fine, because it already did turn out just fine. Devlin -or 'the Kid', as they called him at the time- got home to the future just fine. And, now they knew both when he went, and how he got home.

"Spanner brought him back." She said.

"I don't know how to get in touch with him." Ben admitted. "He always seems to just show up."

To spite her -still very worried- mood, an ironic smile cracked across Gwendolyn's lips. "He's closer than you think, Ben." At her cousin's confused expression, the sorceress explained. "I can recognize a person's mana, remember. I know who Spanner is and how to get in touch with him."

"You do? Then why haven't you told me yet?" Demanded the Hero of the Universe. He would very much like to know the real name and identity of the time traveling sentai who always shows up out of nowhere to help him (or just down right _save_ him) on a semi-regular basis.

Gwendolyn just shook her head. "Oh, no. If I can wait eleven years to get my baby back, then you can wait a bit longer before learning who Spanner is. He'll tell you when he's ready."

More importantly, Spanner would tell when the Hero of the Universe was ready. The sorceress already knew that -at this moment- Ben was not ready to know exactly who the time traveling sentai that always shows up out of nowhere to help him (or just down right _save_ him) on a semi-regular basis really was.

"In the mean time, I'm gonna get that time travel spell from the Archamada ready anyway. Just in case."

…

Gwen dragged Kevin back to the Plumbers break room. She fished in the freezer and pulled out an ice pack. This she slapped to the side of the Osmosian's head, right over the spot where the mysterious boy kicked him.

"Ow!"

"Oh, hush. I know you've had worse." She huffed at him, placing both her fists on her hips in annoyance. She really loved him, but sometimes the Osmosian could be so childish and immature. Whiney and indignant. He really was just a big baby some times. Gwen shook her head. But Kevin was the way he was, and she wouldn't want him any other way. "What did you say to that poor boy that made him kick you?"

"I didn't say anything!" Insisted the Osmosian. "I was just trying to get a better look at him and he woke up and kicked me _in the face!"_

The sorceress pursed her lips. That was a very strong knee-jerk (no pun intended) reaction to just waking up in a place you don't know with people you don't know. Some fear and anxiety is to be expected. But to wake up fighting is something different entirely. Kevin used to do that sometimes. If he was napping and she or Ben woke him unexpectedly, he would jolt awake on the offensive, absorbing whatever was closest to him and getting ready for a fight.

Gwen knew why Kevin did that. When he was only eleven he was sent to a particularly rough and nasty prison in the Null Void -Incarsercon. Kevin was an inmate there for a little over a year. From the ages of eleven to twelve, before he escaped and was found by Servantis and his Rooters. So, Gwen understood why Kevin might react violently to being woken unexpectedly or waking up in a place he doesn't recognize, and because she understood why Kevin did it sometimes, it made her worry about why the mysterious boy might do the same thing.

She bit her thumbnail in concern. "You think Ben and Rook can get anything out of him?"

"Well, from what I've seen of your cousin's people-skills..." The Osmosian trailed off, leaving the statement unfinished -which was his statement in and of itself.

"Do you think you can be civil if we went back and spoke with him?" She asked.

…

"Hey. Hey. Hey..." Ben wrapped his arms around the crying boy, trying to calm him down. Seriously, how do you comfort a crying child? Why did Kai want to have one of these? "Its okay. We're Plumbers. If you tell us who you are or where you came from we can help you get home."

The boy tensed in the Hero's embrace, so Ben let go, not wanting to make the boy uncomfortable.

Rook, always the responsible one that kept heroic -but attention challenge- partner on task, cleared his throat. "Perhaps if you told us what you were doing before you appeared here, we can all figure out what's going on together."

Looking up, the boy fixed the Revonnahgander with a stare that Rook was going to call suspicious. What had happened to this human child -or at the very least, Earthling child- in his life to give him that suspicious stare. Sure, Rook was a stranger to him, and children on this planet were taught to be mindful of strangers, but there was an edge to his glance. Almost like there was an accusation of danger going hand-in-hand with the suspicion. Almost as if the child expected a betrayal. ...And the thing that made it all the more unnerving, was the it reminded the Revonnahgander a lot of Kevin. Particularly Kevin back during that whole Rooters thing.

The boy already carried an uncanny resemblance to the Osmosian in looks, but it appeared that he had a bit of the personality too.

"I was..." He began slowly, his focus shifting from Rook back to Ben. His expression likewise shifted from suspicious to appraising, and he considered his words carefully. "I was hanging out with my friend's Grandpa... and we were attacked."

"Attacked!" Ben echoed. He was imagining the kid already being a deputized Plumber of some variety. He looked so much like Kevin to begin with, and -in Ben's personal experience- 'hanging out with Grandpa' usually involved one alien-monster-robot-mutant battle at some point. That was just the way the Tennyson family rolled. (Probably the Levin family too.) "By who? ...Or what?"

The boy frowned, thinking. "I think... they called him 'Mal-Truant'."

"Maltruant!" Both Ben and Rook exclaimed, recognizing the name. It was not the first time they'd had to fight and/or fix the fallout from a fight with the time-bending rouge Chronosapien.

There was the smallest of nods as the boy confirmed. His eyes flicked down to the Omnitrix on Ben's wrist, then back up to his face. His eyes scrunched up as he studied the Hero's face. An analytical expression Ben had seem many, many times on his cousin's face. It was a little disorienting seeing something of Gwen on a face that was almost entirely Kevin's. "Are you Ben 10,000?"

For some reason, Rook found the idea of someone feeling the need to ask that question very amusing. Especially when Ben never missed an opportunity to lord his Hero status and reputation over others. The Hero of the Universe loved being famous. The fact that someone would feel the need to ask who he was, as if they weren't sure, or didn't even know, was hilarious.

Ben offered the boy a patient smile. "Yeah... I kinda am..."

"Either you are, or you aren't." The boy huffed, sounding almost uncomfortably like Gwen. It was very disorienting. "What's this 'kinda' bullshit?"

"Whoa!" Ben blinked. "Your mother lets you talk like that?"

He was imagining this boy's mother being Gwen -or Gwen's daughter since she was _literally_ just talking about wanting to having kids _with Kevin_ no more than ten minutes ago in the break-room, and this boy looked almost identical to Kevin.

The boy just looked annoyed again. He must have decided that dealing with the Hero of the Universe wasn't getting him very far, because he quickly turned his attention to Rook instead. "What year is it?"

The Revonnahgander raised a brow at the child's seemingly arbitrary question. Well, Ben did say that he had 'time travel residue' on him. He would have to ask what year it was some time. "2018."

Usually when accidental time travelers learned what year they suddenly found themselves in, they would lean back and sigh, or gasp, or let out a breath of surprise, or count how far they were from their own time. But all the mysterious boy did was turn his attention back to Ben and glare reproachfully. "Why are you friends with Kevin Levin? _How_ can you be friends with Kevin Levin!? Are you _stupid_? Are you slow? Do you not know what he is? What he's capable of!"

That patient expression was back on Ben's face. He put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. He was suddenly rethinking his assumption that the boy was from the future. Just because he had time travel residue on him didn't mean he had to be from the future. He could be from the past. The recent past, since he obviously knew Kevin. A relative perhaps. A sibling, or a cousin the Osmosian might have harmed when he was younger and unable to control his powers or himself and attacked friend, foe, and family indiscriminately.

"Look..." He said. "I know Kevin's done some bad things in the past. But he's changed. He's a good guy now. He's on my Team."

The boy shot to his feet. Jumping off the exam table, and glaring up at the Hero of the Universe as if he'd just insulted his ancestors.

"In that past! In the past? _In the past!_ " He shouted -snarled, actually. "This is the past! He hasn't 'done some terrible things'. He _is_ terrible! What's wrong with you? What's wrong with all of you!? Why'd you call him Gwendolyn's husband? Why is Gwendolyn married to him? What's going on here? There is so much wrong with this! There is so much wrong with _all_ of this!"

Wow.

That was a strong reaction.

So, if this was 'the past' to the boy, then he really was from the future.

Jeez-uhz! What was Kevin gonna do this time? Between now and -an assessing glance at the boy- about ten to twelve years from now, what was Kevin gonna do that was so, so, so terrible to make this boy loath him so vehemently? Like, did Kevin kill his puppy in front of him or something?

"Okay..." Ben leaned back on his heels and sucked on his teeth -thinking. He glanced at Rook.

The Revonnahgander only shrugged behind the boy's back. He didn't have as much first hand experience with Kevin's 'villain phases' as Ben did. But even he agreed that was an unusually strong reaction.

"Maybe if you told us a little bit about yourself." He suggested.

Dark eyes looked at him suspicious again, but this time they were more shocked. "Is that safe? _Can_ I tell you stuff? I mean, I'm- If it really is 2018, then I'm from the future. Isn't it bad to know stuff about the future?"

"Not for me." Ben smiled at the boy, thumping his chest proudly. "I've met my future self half a dozen times -and by this point I've met my past self, like, twice now. I've been dealing with time travel shenanigans since I was about your age. What is your age, by the way? You're like, what, ten?"

The boy pouted. He didn't answer. Ten was usually Ben's default number -for obvious reasons.

Gwen and Kevin reentered the room -Kevin with an icepack pressed to the side of his face.

The boy cast a suspicious glance at the Osmosian before turning back to Ben. "Eleven."

Of course he was.

"What's eleven?" Kevin asked.

That was when the mysterious boy really reacted. As if Kevin's voice was some kind of trigger that set him off. He jabbed a finger at the Osmosian. "What is he even doing here!? Why are you all acting like he's your friend? Like he's a good person? Why are you holding his hand!? Don't you know he's dangerous? What's stopping him from killing everyone in this room!?"

There was a beat of silence.

Kevin blinked, then shrugged trying to diffuse the boy's venom with humor. It wasn't the first time someone accused him of being a horrible sociopathic murderer and it wouldn't be the last. It was sad to say, but the Osmosian was kinda getting used to it by now. "Well, these two owe me money and this one sleeps with me, so... There's that."

"Kevin!" Gwen gave him a reprimanding -but very light- slap on the chest.

"What? Are you trying to tell me that we _didn't_ have hot, wet, acrobatic sex in the back of the U-Haul this morning? Because I did it with someone and she sure seemed to moan and squirt a lot like you."

"Kevin!" She snapped again. This time the slap was harder, her face turning a bright, bright, bright shade of red in mortification.

"Ew! Gross!" Ben groaned.

"I agree, that was too much information." Rook admitted. He considered the both of them friends as well as colleagues, but he did not need to know the temperatures, moisture levels, positions, or locations of their mating.

The mysterious boy just stared at them all. Eyes wide with disbelief, mouth hanging open in mortification. Not over what Kevin said, or that he had just humiliated Gwendolyn in front of her peers, but over the fact that nobody seemed to care that he was Kevin Levin at all. "Why are you all laughing and hanging out with him!? _He's evil!_ "

"Okay, okay. Calm down." Ben tried to sooth.

"Yeah, Kid, cool your jets." The Osmosian agreed. "You don't even know me."

"I _do_ know you!" The boy snarled, finally speaking directly to Kevin for the first time since he kicked the Osmosian in the face. _"You're my father!"_

There was a beat of silence.

I mean, everyone already guessed as much -or if not father, then like grandfather, or something. But growing up on Earth where three generations of Star Wars movies had conditioned them to be shocked by that statement, made them all stand and stare at the mysterious boy.

Kevin was the first one to break the silence.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!" The boy snarled back. Snarled, with a vehemence that could only come from deep seeded emotional scars. The kind that don't heal, the kind that just get covered over and hidden by healthier relationships, but always insist on showing up again in nightmares and triggers.

The Osmosian looked the boy up and down. A serious, appraising look. The kind of scrutiny he gave a piece of alien tech before he took it apart. "You're, what? Twelve? I would have had to have you when I was twenty. I was just barely losing my virginity to this one-" he jabbed a thumb sideways at Gwen "-back then, and I've never had sex with anyone else in my life besides her. And I'm pretty sure Gwen would have told me if she's had a kid before she even got her first Masters -if for no other reason than to blame me for delaying her education. I don't have kids. I'm not your father."

"I'm from the future!" The boy spat.

"Oh! I guess Kevin was always out of the room when we established that." Gwen realized. He wasn't there in the bull pin when Ben mentioned 'time travel residue' and if Ben had discussed the boy's apparent time displacement after he woke up, well, Gwen had the Osmosian in the break room administering an ice pack. She crossed the space between her and the boy, and knelt down in front of him. "So, you're my son. Huh."

To everyone's surprise, the boy pulled away from her awkwardly. Almost as if he were afraid to be touched. Almost as if he didn't even know Gwen. As if the sorceress were a stranger to him. He avoided eye-contact when I said, "I-" his voice trembled "I don't know. I have no memory of my mother. I never met her. I don't know you, Gwendolyn. I didn't even know you were married to Kevin until-" a glance at the matching rings on her and the Osmosian's fingers "-until just now."

Rook and Ben shard the seemingly obligatory gasp of disbelief.

But Kevin went pale. Very pale. His hands balled into fists at his sides. His voice was low and sober when he said, "She's dead isn't she."

"What?" Gwen looked back at him in confusion.

"In the future." Kevin shook his head. Now it was his turn to avoid eye-contact with everyone. "This is why I don't want to have kids."

"Kevin!" Gwen shot back to her feet, glaring at her husband. Seriously, you don't say something like that right in front of your child. Not even a time displaced version of your child from the future. Even if it might be true. There are some things you just don't say.

"You're dead, Babe!" He repeated. "If I'm his father, then you have to be his mother because there's no way I'd sleep with anything else, but he doesn't know you. The only way he wouldn't know you, is if you died when he was born. Either he absorbed all your mana from the inside out, or he ripped himself out of your body and tore you to shreds, but one way or another he killed you! Having a child with me killed you! This is why having kids with me would be a _very bad idea!_ "

"Whoa." Ben didn't even think of those as possibilities. When he tried to dissuade Gwen from wanting kids with Kevin, he was imagining the Osmosian forgetting the hypothetical child in department stores, or refusing to change diapers, maybe dealing out unnecessarily harsh punishments. Kevin's mind was clearly still a much darker place than Ben's own.

All eyes in the room turned back to the mysterious future boy. Kevin's son.

He was looking at the ground. His sharp bangs hanging over his face, hiding his eyes. He reached a hand up to wipe his face and sniffed.

"You said I was bad for her." It was halfway between a whisper and a sob.

" _Ohmygod, its true!_ " Kevin dropped his ice pack in horror. "You killed her!"

"Kevin, stop saying that!" Gwen snarled at him. She wrapped her arms around the distraught boy and pulled him into a tight hug. She felt him tense within the embrace, but decided not to analyze it to much at the moment. It was abundantly clear that he did not have a perfect childhood and was burdened with trust issues beyond his years. "Can't you see you're upsetting him? You don't tell a child they killed their parent. What's wrong with you!?"

"Nothing's wrong with me! I'm just being real." The Osmosian insisted. He took a breath and forced himself to calm down. "Anyway... future or not, son or not, the kid's obviously from an alternate timeline. Because now that we know this, we are _never ever, ever, ever_ having children."

She turned her head to glare at him again. A truly venomous glare the Osmosian rarely saw on his wife's face and almost never saw directed at him. She turned back around to give the mysterious future boy a maternal kiss on the forehead before she released him from the hug and stood. Meeting her husbands eyes, she announced -sighed with resignation was more like it- in a voice similar to the one a person might use when they say 'Kevin, stop saying stupid shit'.

"Kevin, I'm pregnant."

…


	4. Gwen Makes Macaroni, Kevin Has a Drink

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter Four: Gwen Makes Macaroni, Kevin Has a Drink

The gaping hole in the wall when Kenny arrived home from school was nothing new or unusual. Things like that happened from time to time around his dad. He coasted on his hover-board right through the gap in the wall, muttering an unimpressed "Hey" to Great-Grandpa Max.

What _was_ new and unusual was the fact that Aunt Gwendolyn seemed to be drawing out a magic sigil right in the middle of the -mostly destroyed- kitchen. A triangle drawn in chalk with one candle placed in each corner. The boy hopped off his hover-board, blinking at her. "What'cha doin'?"

"I'm setting up for the Time Travel spell in case Spanner can't bring Devlin back." She supplied, then lifted her head to meet his eyes, a meaningful look on her face. As if she were trying to tell him something without actually telling him anything. Kenny hated it when adults did that. He couldn't read minds, ya know!

But he did register one thing she said. "What happened to Dev!?"

"Maltruant sent him somewhere else in time. But we don't know when." She supplied in a tone similar to the one she used when briefing his dad on a mission. Did she expect Kenny to be able to do anything to bring him back? What did Kenny know about undoing rouge Chronosapien temporal displacement attacks? He was only ten for cripes sake!

"But you're gonna bring him back, right?" The boy asked. True, he'd technically only just met Devlin Levin a few months ago. But he understood Kenny in ways his schoolmates and other friends weren't capable of understanding. If might be a little early to say, but Devlin was Kenny's best friend.

She looked at him confused for a moment, then her lips softened into a the kind of smile she used when she was playing along with someone's deception. Kenny really wished she would just come out and say what it was he was missing from this conversation, because he was reading a heck of a lot of subtext from her that he just didn't understand. "If Spanner can't bring him back, then yeah. I'm going to."

"Great! So Dev'll be home soon!" Kenny decided not to worry.

If both the time traveling sentai and his sorceress aunt were on the case, then Devlin would be home by dinner time. He left the -mostly destroyed- kitchen to see if he could find a snack he might have left in his room -assuming Great-Grandpa Max hadn't cleaned at all today.

Gwendolyn blinked at his retreating back, not sure if he understood what she was trying to tell him without telling him or not.

"He's not Spanner yet."

She spun around to find Professor Paradox standing in the kitchen behind her.

"Hello, Gwendolyn." His eyes flicked to the time travel spell she was still in the middle of setting up. "I thought we learned our lesson the first time."

"I have to do something!" She snarled at the time traveling doctor.

Paradox just offered a gentle smile. The kind a sagely old grandfather might offer when leading a child to an answer they already knew but just hadn't realized they knew yet. Gwendolyn thought she was to old for that anymore, but the immortal Time Walker always managed to make her feel like a child. "You have done something. You told the one that will eventually become Spanner what happened to Devlin and that he is the one to return him to his own time. A few years from now, he'll be being scolded by his father for not telling him of his double identity and to escape from it, he'll use the need to recover Devlin as his excuse to get away. He will also actually recover Devlin, by the way."

Oh. Well, good thing he cleared that up.

Gwendolyn did not seem impressed. She glared at the time traveler. "Years from now! That's not good enough!"

"Time travel, Gwendolyn." He reminded her. "It doesn't matter if its years from now, or later tonight. So long as Spanner recovers him from when he was sent and returns him to when he came from."

That did make sense.

But Gwendolyn continued to glare at the professor until he shrugged -and then was gone.

…

The artificial gravity still hadn't been restored so Kenny hung in mid-air -almost in the exact center- of the main chamber of the orbital Plumber's Headquarters. He looked down at the floor panels far, far below his feet as his parents delivered a prime lecture on keeping secrets and withholding information from them.

"How could you not tell us you were Spanner!?" Ben demanded of his son. "Do you know how dangerous this work is?"

Kenny suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he knew how dangerous Hero Work was. He learned that really, really, really, early on. When he was ten. When Devlin tricked him into letting Uncle Kevin out of the Null Void. It had been terrifying. But Kenny still wanted to be a Hero anyway. Why couldn't his parents understand that? Professor Paradox understood just fine! That was why he gave Kenny the time shift device that allowed him to be Spanner.

"I've come to expect this sort of thing from Devlin!" Ben continued. "He spent his formative years with nothing but Kevin as a role model."

From across the chamber, Uncle Kevin -formerly the mutant monster and terrorist known as 'Kevin 11,000'- lifted his head from an open circuitry panel where he was trying to fix the gravity. "Oi! Was that a dig against me!?"

"Not now, Kevin!" Ben shouted back at him. "I'm trying to parent over here! I know that's a hard concept for you to grasp."

 _That_ was definitely a dig against Uncle Kevin.

Kenny sighed. Things would have been easier if Devlin were here. But, unfortunately, due to circumstances -which were totally not Devlin's fault!, the Osmosian was 100% innocent!, really!- both Devlin and the family dog Zed were grounded and hadn't been allowed to attend Great-Grandpa Max's retirement ceremony.

Then again, maybe it was for the best that the Osmosian hadn't attended. Devlin had had a bad experience with Maltruant when he was younger. Only just come to live with him and his parents for a bit before Aunt Gwendolyn took him to live with her. He was attacked at home and hurled back in time.

Come to think of it, how did Dev get back anyway...?

"But you can't just take the first accessory of high-level technology you see and rush off to fight aliens with it!" Ben was saying -clearly speaking from personal experience. "It takes time, discipline, and patience to-"

"Hang on a sec!" Kenny cut him off suddenly remembering something and glad for it too. If it would get him out of this boring-ass lecture -a totally hypocritical lecture too, though, Kenny wasn't gonna say _that_ out loud. "Speaking of Dev, I just remembered, I was supposed to rescue him four years ago." A pause. "Uh... fifteen years ago? Whatever. I gotta go save Dev!"

And he was gone. Shifted through time.

…

"Kevin, I'm pregnant." She announced, using a voice that was usually reserved exclusively for saying 'Kevin, stop saying stupid shit.' "That's why my parents are giving us the house."

Silence followed this announcement.

Devlin looked between all the adults. Gwendolyn's husband was Kevin, and Gwendolyn was already pregnant. The year was 2018, the year he was born... His father always told Devlin he was 'bad for' his mother, and this time's present-Kevin was already convinced that Gwendolyn's pregnancy was going to kill her. No wonder his father always treated him like some sort of pariah.

Everyone stared at Gwen, their mouths hanging open.

Then, slowly, all eyes turned to Kevin.

"Wh- what?" Stuttered the Osmosian. "But... how?"

Devlin had to try really hard not to roll his eyes. Even he knew where babies came from. He might be only eleven years old, but his father didn't believe in censoring things for children, or sugar-coating the grittier aspects of life.

That was the thing that finally broke the stupor. Ben recovered enough of himself to wrap an arm around the his long time frienemy's shoulders and explain, "Ya see, Kevin, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they hug in a special way that-"

" _I know how its done!_ " The Osmosian roared, not amused in the least. "I meant-!" He glanced at his wife, suddenly unsure. "...Your IUD?"

Gwen only shrugged. "Expired this year. I always wanted kids and I figure now would be as good a time as any. I mean, we're not exactly getting any younger. And Kai's trying to get Ben to have a baby too. Our kids could grow up together, just like Ben and I grew up together."

Her husband muttered something incomprehensible that may or may not have been an alien curse.

Rook looked between the pair and came to the obvious conclusion. "Is it to be assumed that you did not discuss the matter with Kevin before just deciding that it was time to have offspring."

So that's how it was then. Gwendolyn wanted him -assuming the fetus she was pregnant with really was him- and Kevin never did. That explained a lot to Devlin about why his father was the way he was growing up. But it didn't explain why he never even knew Gwendolyn was his mother -assuming she really was his mother. After all, if she was, how come no one ever told him? His father not telling him, Devlin could understand. Kevin wouldn't want him trying to find her. But Ben... Ben would have had to know...

Then he remembered what Ben had said at dinner. _'I will tell you. But... when you're ready...'_

"And people say Kai and I have communication problems." Ben scoffed at his cousin and her husband. "Sheesh. That's kinda a big thing to not discuss before it happens, Red."

"Look, can we argue about this later -and not in front of the scared and lost child that we're arguing _about_?" Gwendolyn asked. She knelt down again, this time scooping Devlin up in her arms. She lifted him off the ground and balanced the far-too-skinny eleven year old on her hip. "I'm taking my future-son home. The rest of you can do whatever you want."

He tried not to tense up again. Delvin had been picked up and held fair few times in his life. It was disconcerting being swept off his feet. Finding yourself no longer in control of where he was going, and allowing himself to be at the mercy of the one holding him. But -out of all the people in the room at the moment- Gwendolyn appeared to be his best ally. So he tried not to give into the nerves and anxiety that being picked up elicited in him.

They didn't go to the motor-pool. Gwendolyn walked with him out of the main exit.

"Kevin and I took his car here, so we're gonna fly home." She told the boy. "Are you afraid of heights?"

"No." Devlin shook his head and wriggled out of her arms. Gwendolyn let him go without any fuss. She wasn't trying to hold him against his will or anything. "I can fly. I'm pretty good at it."

Surprise flashed across her face for a moment, then was quickly replaced by pride. "Wow! That's amazing. Mastering flight spells at your age! I guess you must take after me then."

Now Devlin was shy and self-conscious. She had no idea what she was getting into. "Uh, no..."

The Osmosian shuffled his feet. He avoided eye-contact. Took a deep breath. Sighed to calm his nerves. If Gwendolyn really was his mother she would find out sooner or later. His father always said that when he was cut out of his mother's belly he wasn't human, he was in his monstrous mutant form. If Gwendolyn was his mother, she should at least have some warning about what was going to happen to her.

"I... I have another form." He explained hesitantly. "It has wings -and other extra body parts and stuff."

Closing his eyes -Devlin didn't want to see her face when he did this- he allowed his body to transform. Spine elongating into a Galvanic Mechamorph tail, extra arms sprouting from his ribs -both Vulpimancer, regular arms changing into two different aliens -Pyronite and Tetramand, eyes changing number and shape, and Lepidopterran wings.

He kept all three of his eyes closed. Devlin didn't want to see the horror and disgust on Gwendolyn's face.

"My gosh!" He heard her gasp. The Osmosian felt her hand on his cheek and Devlin cracked two of his Tetramand eyes open to cautiously peer at her. It was not disgust or horror on her face. It was... admiration? That couldn't be right. Nostalgia, maybe? Affection? "You look just like your father."

That was not a complement.

"I'm a monster." He informed her. Just a simple statement of fact. Kevin had told him often enough that Devlin knew it was true. "Just like he is."

"Only if you act like a monster." Gwendolyn told him firmly. She took the boy by one of his Vulpimancer hands. "Now, you told me you were pretty good at flying. Show me what you got. Or was that all just talk?"

Her tone was playful and made Devlin want to show off for her. It helped him push his feeling to the side -he was good at pushing his feelings to the side. He could show Gwendolyn what he could do. Just like showing off his hover-board skills to Kenny, he'd pull his flips and stunts for the sorceress-plumber. Devlin jumped into the air. She cast a flight spell to join him and lead him to 'home' -wherever that was.

'Home' it turned out, was a very nice suburban house. Two stories, with a neatly mowed front lawn, and attached garage. Gwendolyn landed on the porch and opened the door for Devlin. He transformed back into his human shape and stepped inside.

Inside was full of moving boxes in various stages of being unpacked. A couch was covered in a sheet to protect it from dust and had more boxes and a few smaller pieces of furniture piled on top of it. In front of the couch was a TV standing on the floor with a Blu-Ray player and Play Station 4 in front of it -the cords not yet hooked up. It was clear that Gwendolyn and Kevin were still in the process of moving in, even if the house showed signs of already being lived in.

"Are you hungry?" She asked, heading towards the kitchen.

"I'm fine. Thanks." The boy told her, just as his stomach growled, revealing his words to be a lie.

Gwendolyn offered him a sympathetic smile. "You don't have to worry about being polite here. I'm your mother -or going to be your mother- not quite sure how the tenses work in this situation. If you're hungry, I'll make something for you. What do you like?"

"Anything's fine." He assured her, still nervous about taking food from a woman who was -essentially- still a stranger to him. "I'm not picky."

Gwendolyn busied herself in the kitchen making instant Mac 'n' Cheese while Devlin wandered around the house. It was a bit empty. But it looked like it was a nice house. He would have liked to live here if he weren't a danger to his mother and his father didn't not-so-secretly hate him. Devlin wandered upstairs to explore, opening doors and peering inside at the rooms. Some empty, some with moving boxes. One room -the master bedroom, he assumed- had a mattress on the floor a yet un-put together bed frame shoved in one corner. Lounging on the mattress was a dog.

An alien dog. An Anubian Baskurr. Dark blue with red eyes.

The dog stood upon seeing an unfamiliar person in her house and approached the young Osmosian, growling a warning.

Devlin took a step back, suddenly unsure. He was pretty sure he could defend himself against a dog. But he was also pretty sure Gwendolyn would be mad at him if he beat up her pet -even if it was in self-defense.

But as soon as she got close enough to the boy to get a whiff of his scent, that growl of warning changed to a whine of approval and she offered her head for scratchies.

"Uh, hi." Devlin said, giving the alien dog an unsure pat on the head. "I'm from the future."

The Anubian Baskurr indicated that she didn't care by affectionately licking the boy's face.

Then she smelled the scent of dehydrated powdered cheese and heard the clink of dishes in the kitchen and realized that Gwendolyn was making human food and the dog bounded past the boy and down the stairs. With a shrug, and realizing he had nothing better to do, Devlin followed the alien dog back down the stairs.

Gwendolyn was just setting two bowls of Mac 'n' Cheese on the kitchen island. She looked Devlin up and down, assessing his height and pulled over an empty crate for him to stand on.

"Sorry, we haven't exactly set up a place to eat yet." She explained, self-conscious. "Kevin and I usually just eat over the sink."

Next to Gwendolyn, the dog gave an expectant "Arf!", as if asking 'Where's my bowel?'

She patted the dog on the head. "Okay, Zed, hang on." Pulling a bag of Xenokibble down from a cabinet -a mostly empty cabinet- Gwendolyn filled a dog bowel with the alien dog food. "There ya go."

The dog -Zed- did not seem impressed. She gave a snort of disappointment and ignored Gwendolyn, coming around to the other side of the island to sit quietly and patiently next to the crate Devlin was standing on.

"Don't feed her at the table." The sorceress commanded.

She said it using a tone of voice that told Devlin she'd already had to repeat that command several times by this point in her life. He wasn't even born yet, so it must be a habit of Kevin's to feed the family dog at the table. Since Devlin probably smelled like his father, the dog expected him to feed her.

He looked down at the dog. Sitting so patiently and well behaved. "Sorry, girl. Gwendolyn said 'no'."

"Didn't you grow up with Zed?" Asked the sorceress.

Devlin avoided eye-contact again. "Uh, no. My dad never let me have any pets. He said I couldn't have pets. Something about harming small animals."

She raised a single concerned eyebrow. The first actual concern she'd shown over him -as opposed to _for_ him- since he inexplicably arrived in the past. "Intensionally, or on accident?"

"I donno. I can't remember it ever actually happening. But then, I can't remember ever trying to absorb my mother either. I was too young. All of my memories are just me and Dad." Either that, or of his father being absent because he was sent back to the Null Void again. At least until he was brought into the Tennyson household and fostered by Ben -fostered, not adopted. Because they wanted to return him to his biological mother. He glanced up at Gwendolyn cautiously. Could she really be his biological mother? The only way he would find out for sure was to get back home to the future and actually ask her. "When can I go home?"

That gentle and patient smile was back on her face again. "I have a magic book that has a time travel spell in it. Its not here, I keep it in my library which is a lot safer. We can go and get it together tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" The idea of spending a night in the house Gwendolyn shared _with Kevin_ gave the younger Osmosian a start. Once upon a time, Devlin really did love and depend on his father. But that was before meeting the Tennysons, being thrown away by Kevin in the middle of the fight, and then fostered by Ben. Devlin now knew just how short Kevin's fatherly affection really fell. That was after having raised him for years. What would a younger Kevin who hadn't technically met him or spent time with him yet, and never even wanted him in the first place be like? "You mean I'll spend the night here?"

"Of course!" Gwendolyn was politely insulted by the question. "I'm not gonna make my future son sleep in a Plumbers barracks, or -even worse- stay with Ben!"

What was so wrong with Ben? He seemed fine eleven years in the future.

"But-" Devlin hesitated. This was a woman who chose to marry Kevin Levin and actually wanted him as a father of her children. Exactly how good was her judgment, really? "What about... Kevin?"

She gave a huff, crossing her arms over her chest in exasperation. "Kevin can either get over himself and behave, or else he can sleep in his car tonight."

Oh. Well. It was a little reassuring to see that while Gwendolyn might have married Kevin willingly, that didn't mean she was going to put up with his shit -willingly or otherwise. Suddenly, Devlin liked her just a little bit more.

…

Kevin swirled a finger around the rim of his glass.

After Gwendolyn had taken off with the mysterious boy from the future claiming to be their son -no, not 'their' son, just _his_ son- Ben decided it was a good idea to try and get the Osmosian to calm down. That in and of itself was a good idea. Even Kevin knew that he needed to calm down before he did something he would regret. Ben's idea of getting him to calm down, however, was to take him out for drinks.

Self-control always being an uphill battle for him, the Osmosian tried to stay away from substances that loosened his inhibitions -alcohol being one of them. As such, he was a horrible light-weight. He'd only had one drink thus far and was already feeling it. But Ben -being Ben- insisted on ordering him a second one. You'd think the Hero of the Universe would have learned by now...

Kevin swirled a finger around the rim of the glass. The second drink Ben had put in front of him this evening. He was already feeling the first and questioning the wisdom of drinking a second -as well as questioning other things about life, the universe, and everything in general.

"What do you think he meant when he said he has no memories of his mother because he never knew her?" Asked the Osmosian. "His mother's gotta be dead, right. That's not an insane conclusion to draw, right. I'm an Osmosian, my wife is an Anodite, Osmosians _eat_ Anodites. He probably absorbed her mana while he was still inside her, so that by the time he was born there was nothing left of her."

"I'm sure that's not how its going to happen." Ben took a sip of his own drink as he brushed off his frienemy's concern.

"There is no reason to assume the boy's not knowing his mother is in any way related to him being your son." Rook cut in with some actual reasoning. "The job that we preform is not a very safe one. Sometime after this child was born, Gwendolyn might have been on a difficult mission and her body could have been destroyed. As I understand it, killing her body would only release the Anodite part of her that's inside the body. Your future-son might not know his mother because she chose to go to Anodyne rather than remain on Earth without a body." A pause. "You two make it no secret how much you enjoy each others bodies."

"You been checkin' out my wife's body, Rook!" Kevin accused, standing from his barstool and swaying slightly. He was considerably less intimidating than normal while swaying from alcohol.

"That is not even remotely close to what I said." The Revonnahgander, at least, was calm and collected, and did not appear to be affected by his own drink. Of course, that could also be because Rook had nominated himself the designated driver that would make sure both Ben and his distraught frienemy got home safely.

"I'm pretty sure Rook's saying you don't have to beat yourself up about Gwendolyn being dead in the future." Ben cut in. "She could have just died for some other reason that has nothing to do with you."

Amazingly, this did not make the Osmosian feel any better.

The Hero of the Universe seemed not to notice. He downed the last of his drink and ordered another. After a sip of the new drink, Ben decided it was a fantastic idea to suggest an entirely different scenario. "Or, hey! Maybe its not the kid, or the job that kills Gwendolyn! Maybe its you! That would explain why the kid seems to hate you so much."

At that suggestion, Rook reached over the plucked the Hero's drink from his hand. "That's it. I am cutting you off."

Before Kevin killed him.

The Revonnahgander cast a cautious glance over at the Osmosian. He had never witness one of Kevin's 'nutties' first hand. Kevin 11, Ultimate Kevin. They all happened before he came to Earth, and the thing with the Rooters doesn't count because he was faking that one. So, Rook honestly wasn't sure exactly how accurate that suggestion might actually be. Certainly, the Osmosian had managed to keep himself under control for the better part of a decade now. Ben's suggestion was an insult to all that time.

But the Osmosian did not look insulted when the Revonnahgander looked over at him. In fact, he looked, almost... scared.

"I'm always so worried I'll hurt her." He muttered to his glass.

It was said so softly, one might have missed the words entirely. But it was also sober and gravely -almost somber in tone. As soft as it was, Rook saw Ben raise his head and look at the older man, really look at him. Rook gave the Osmosian his attention too. One didn't usually hear Kevin sound so... serious!

"I _have_ hurt her in the past. Hell! I nearly _killed_ her in the past! I don't know why she even loves me. I'm so bad for her. Half the time I don't even know what I'm even doing." He continued. "I ever tell you about the first time we tried to lose our virginities?"

Ooh, never mind. He wasn't being serious after all. He was just drunk.

"Neither of us had ever had sex before, but Gwen at least had the benefit of sex-ed. I had to learn 'astrophysics' on the streets." Kevin launched into his narrative without either of them inquiring. The Osmosian had a nasty habit of sharing to much information on the subject of copulating with his mate. Partly because it made Ben uncomfortable, and partly because it was a way of bragging about his relative 'maleness' in comparison to other Earthling males. In this instance, however, it was neither reason. He was simply illustrating a point. "I didn't know girls _bled_ their first time."

The Osmosian took another sip of his drink. Then another.

"I was so freaked out when I saw all this blood coming out of her!" He groaned, continuing the story in more detail than either Revonnahgander or Hero of the Universe wanted to hear. "It was all over the sheet and it was _all over my dick!_ I just- I couldn't- We had to stop. I couldn't finish. We didn't actually exchange virginities for real until a week later. We've been married for years and I still have trouble having sex on her period." I paused to count on his fingers. "I should have known she was pregnant six weeks ago."

He took another sip from his drink. The Osmosian had nearly finished the second one Ben ordered for him.

"If I'm responsible for her death in the future, I- I don't- I don't know what I'd do..." He admitted.

"Obviously, you do something that makes your eleven-year-old son who has no memories of his mother hate you." Ben said in his best 'I think I'm helping' voice.

Rook placed a glass of water in the Hero's hands.

"Please hydrate and stop speaking." To Kevin the Revonnahgander said, "Its pointless to speculate at this point. I have read many of your Eathling mythologies and I seem to remember a common theme in them being that efforts made to change the future inevitably end up causing the thing that was to be avoided. I believe the term is 'self-fulfilling prophesy'. But my point is that if you worry to much about this terrible thing that's going to rob your son of his mother in the future without even knowing that this terrible thing is, you might inadvertently cause it instead. You need more information."

Kevin seemed to think about what Rook said. The Revonnahgander thought the Osmosian was really taking his words to heart. That he was going to follow his advice and try not to worry as much anymore.

Then Kevin spoke. "I've never interrogated a kid before."

Rook's face fell into the palm of his hand. The Osmosian's mind truly was a dark place. "That is not even remotely close to what I was suggesting."

"Kevin, can you please try not to be so fucked in the head for, like, five minutes?" Ben slurred as he ignored the glass of water Rook put in front of him. "No one says you should interrogate your future son."

"Well, how the hell am I supposed to get more information?" Demanded the Osmosian.

"You could simply ask." The Revonnahgander reminded him. There was no need to tie the boy to a chair and threaten bodily harm.

"Ooh! Or, better yet!" Ben slammed his fist down on the bar counter. "We could go to the future and ask future-me! Ultimate Ben 10,000 is a pretty cool guy. I'm sure he'll tell us!"

Kevin thought about that suggestion, swirling what was left of his drink around in the cup. "The last time we saw Ultimate Ben 10,000 he bragged about learning to use mana, and that Gwen was the president of Earth... he didn't mention anything about me... or a son Gwen and I had. I don't... what if we're not friends anymore? In the future, I mean?"

In his drunken state, the Osmosian slammed his drink back down on the bar counter then threw his arms around Ben. "I hate you some times, but- _you're my best friend, Tennyson!_ " He sobbed into the Hero's shoulder. "I don't wanna be enemies again! Why can't we just be best friends forever!?"

Well, shit. He'd reaching the point in his inebriation where he was all emotional and weepy.

Not knowing what else to do, Ben just patted the older man's hair. "There, there. There, there. Uh... I'm sure we'll always be friends."

Rook sighed. "Alright. That's it. I'm taking you two home."

This time it was the Revonnahgander's turn to stand from his barstool. He grabbed both the human-changling and the Osmosian that was latched onto him and dragged them both out of the bar.

…


	5. Kevin Has a Hangover, Gwen Drives

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter Five: Kevin Has a Hangover, Gwendolyn Drives His Car

Gwendolyn made up the mattress in the master bedroom for Devlin, but the boy couldn't sleep.

He lay awake and listened to her making up the couch for herself in the living room downstairs.

So much had happened today that Devlin didn't even know how to process it. Everything started out all fine and dandy. Breakfast with Ben, Kenny, and Max, then everyone left for work or school, and he spent some alone time with Max being interrogated about his mysterious and anonymous mother. Then the Headquarters was attacked and he was hurled back in time to see first hand that his father used to be married to Ben's own cousin -Gwendolyn Tennyson, the Plumber-sorceress, the High Magus.

Who would have thought?

Could Gwendolyn really be his mother? Was the baby in Gwendolyn's belly right now really him?

 _'We've known Kevin since he was eleven years old.'_ Max had told him. _'That's almost all his life. And, all his life, Kevin E. Levin has only ever loved one woman. I know who your mother is, Devlin.'_

Did Kevin really love Gwendolyn? Did Kevin really love anyone besides himself? Devlin already knew his father didn't love _him_. Even without this little trip to the past to learn that Kevin never wanted him, Devlin knew that his father didn't love him.

He heard the door open downstairs -or rather, he heard someone jiggling the lock in the door.

Then drop their keys.

Then snort with laughter. "I was using the one for the apartment!"

It took a moment because he'd never heard his father laugh before -with humor, not just an insane, maniacle laugh- but it sounded like it was Kevin that was now falling on his ass laughing because he tried to use the wrong key to open the door.

"Wait, but I took your keys away from you when we left the bar." That was the Revonnahgander -Rook.

There was the sound of a third person laughing. "I thought I told you Kevin used to live on the streets. He's, like, pro-boss-level pick pocket." -That was Ben's voice.

The door was wrenched open and Gwendolyn's voice joined theirs. "Will you three quiet down!" She snapped. "The boy from the future is upstairs sleeping!"

Someone burped.

"Have you been drinking?" She demanded.

"You let him sleep in our bed?" Kevin demanded in turn, completely ignoring her question. "You don't know where he's been!"

"He's our _son_ , Kevin!" Gwendolyn snarled back.

She sure seemed to think she was Devlin's mother -then again, she was already pregnant and this was the year he was born. In all likelihood, Gwendolyn really was his mother. How come Kevin never said anything?

The sorceress huffed and there was an 'oof' that presumably was her grabbing her husband and dragging him inside. "If you puke on anything, I swear, you'll be sleeping with your face in the toilet tonight."

She was going to try and drown him!? Maybe Gwendolyn and Kevin really were meant for each other. She had a dark streak to her that was not unlike Kevin's own.

Kevin, for his part, did not seem bothered by the threat. There was the sound of shuffling bodies and rustling fabric and then a soft 'Mmm', followed quickly by the Osmosian saying, "You know I love you, right? I know I don't say it enough. Even after all our years together, I still don't feel comfortable being completely vulnerable around you. But I love you. I love you Gwendolyn Eleanor Levin, and if anything terrible happened to you I would lose my shit. Like really. Lose it. Worse than Ultimate Kevin, Kevin 11, and fake-Weapon XI combined. That's not a threat. That's just a statement of fact."

Maybe it was true. Maybe Kevin did love something other than himself and when Gwendolyn was pregnant with him, Devlin's Osmosian powers messed her up to the point where Kevin went crazy from worry. Max did say that all his life Kevin Levin had only ever loved one woman. What would he do if the only woman he ever loved got sick and nearly died from having their child -from having _his_ child?

To all of that, the only thing Gwendolyn had to say was, "Gawd! Your breath is terrible! What have you been drinking?"

"You're not listening!" Kevin moaned -no, wait, that actually sounded more like a sob. Was Kevin 11,000 a weepy emotional drunk? Devlin had never seen his father drink before. He didn't know his father _did_ drink. He had no idea what kind of drunk his father even was. _"I love you!_ " There was another lull. Then, "Take your pants off."

"What!?" Gwendolyn's exclamation was punctuated by the sound of a solid male body being shoved with enough force to cause it to stumble off balance and fall to the floor. The whole house shook. Kevin was a solid weight.

"Let's make love!" Kevin suggested -presumably from his new position on the floor. "I wanna show Tennyson and Rook how I make you squirt. Did you know most girls don't squirt? You're amazing, Babe! I wanna show off my amazing wife!"

Someone sighed. "I believe that is our cue to leave." It was Ben's Revonnahgander partner -Rook.

"Wait! Wait! You guys gotta see this!" Kevin insisted. " _She's amazing!"_

"That's it." Gwendolyn cut in. "We're putting some water and some solid food in you then you're going to bed. Have a good night, guys."

There were two other good-byes and then the sound of the door slamming.

There was a pregnant pause.

Then, "You. Bathroom. Now. Go."

Devlin had never heard Gwendolyn sound so authoritative. Admittedly, the young Osmosian hadn't know the woman very long, but between both the past and present -or would it be the present and future?- that was the first time he'd actually heard her sound like the powerful sorceress-Plumber and High Magus that she was. Gosh! What would it have been like to grow up with her?

There was the sound of shuffling feet and a toilet seat being lifted.

"Kneel down with your head over the bowl. I'll pull you're hair back for you."

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Kevin whined -yes, that was actually a whine coming out of Kevin 11,000. (Was he even Kevin 11,000 yet?) "You pull too hard! This is why I never wear it up."

"Keep your voice down!" Gwendolyn snapped at him with a hiss. "Our future son is trying to sleep upstairs and he doesn't need to hear your drunken bitching. Now, I'm going to fix you a snack, and if you can keep it down, then maybe you can join me on the couch tonight."

"I don' wanna sleep on the couch in my own home!" He continued to whine.

"Then sleep with your head in the toilet." Gwendolyn huffed.

…

Rook dragged Ben back to the proto-TRUK and shoved him in the passenger seat. "I am taking you home as well."

And the Hero of the Universe whined like a ten-year-old. "I don' wanna go home!"

Sighing to himself, the Revonnahgander ignored him and climbed back into the driver's seat. It was things like this that finally disillusioned him about just how great, and awesome, and wonderful the wielder of the Omnitrix was. Yes, Ben Tennyson had already saved the universe a number of times before Rook ever even met him. Yes, the Revonnahgander looked up to the Earthling in a lot of ways. Yes, there was even a whole chapter about him in the Plumber's Academy textbooks. But one should never meet their heroes. One should also try not to choose people their own age as their heroes. In retrospect, it actually took Rook far longer to become disillusioned with Ben as a Hero than it should have.

But they were still friends. Rook may not view the Hero of the Universe as a role model anymore. But he was still -and would always be- his friend. Then again, that just lead into the other reason that lead to Rook finally being disillusioned by the Hero of the Universe. A reason the Revonnahgander would never voice out loud. He valued the relationship he had with Ben to much to risk it in the hopes of gaining an entirely different relationship with Ben.

"Well you are certainly not staying out in your condition." Rook informed him, turning over the engine and driving back to Plumbers HQ.

"I don't wanna go back to an empty house."

"Its not empty." Rook told him. "Plumbers HQ is never empty. There's always the various shift crews, plus don't forget Blukic and Driba are always there."

"But Kai won't be." He muttered back. Then he gave an odd sort of half-sob. Not quite the drunken emotional wails that Kevin was throwing around. More like the sort of thing a person hold in for days or moths at a time and then only escapes when their control is weakened -like when they're drunk. "I don't know why she even married me! She's always gone! Even back when we were dating, she was always arguing with me and making little digs at my self-esteem. Sometimes, I think she doesn't even really love me, she just liked the idea of being married to the famous Hero of the Universe. Not that I'm accusing her of being shallow, or a gold-digger, or anything. It's just... I just... The longer we've been married, the more I'm beginning to realize that I don't actually know her all that well. We've known each other since we were kids but we never really hung out until we started dating. Maybe its me. Maybe I proposed to soon."

Too all of this, Rook said nothing. His personal opinion on who Ben should have taken as a mate were unfairly skewed and bias in favor of the least likely candidate in the universe.

"Of course, she could have just married me because she likes being fucked by Blitzwolfer's Loboan dick!" He continued, channeling his inner-Kevin and sharing far more information than Rook needed to know. "I ever tell you that? The first time we ever had sex, she asked me to transform and knot inside her. Yeah! I know! Gross, right! But it totally worked for her and she asks me to do it all the freakin' time! Of course, now that she wants to have a baby, she'll probably tone it back a notch. I mean, I gotta be human to get her pregnant, right?" Another pause. "Not that I'll have much of a chance to get her pregnant when she's never home!"

Rook remained stoically silent for all of this. In addition to not wanting to hear any of that, he also had nothing to say. He pulled into the Headquarters motor-pool and killed the engine. "We're here. Do you need me to walk you upstairs?"

Instead of replying, Ben launched himself out of the passenger seat and wrapped both arms around the Revonnahgander in an awkward sitting-GLOMP.

"I don't wanna go home!" He muttered into his partner's proto-tech armor. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"W-what!?" Rook blinked at him. He never would have imagined, not in a million years of ten different parallel universes that Ben Tennyson would ask him that question. If his species were the kind that blushed, he was sure his face would be a bright, bright red right now. The rest of his body certainly felt hot. He hoped Ben didn't feel it too. That would be humiliating!

"I mean, sleep at your place." The Hero of the Universe clarified for him. "Like, let me crash on your couch or something. Heck! I'll even sleep on the floor. I just don't wanna be alone anymore!"

Rook felt the weight of disappointment settle over him like a blanket. But at least he wasn't flustered anymore. He might want more from his relationship with Ben Tennyson, but he also knew that the nature of the relationship they already had was very different from the one he wanted. That, and also, taking advantage of Ben's loneliness and his drunken state was not the way for Rook to get what he wanted. Right now, Ben needed a friend, not... anything else.

The Revonnahgander sighed. "I will not make you sleep on the floor."

He pulled the proto-TRUK back out of the Headquarters motor-pool.

…

The first thing Kevin became aware of when he woke up, was that his head hurt.

The second thing Kevin became aware of was that he wasn't laying down. His body was propped up, leaning over something hard and cold.

The third thing he became aware of was that the hard and cold thing he was leaning over felt great when pressed against his pounding head.

Kevin rested his head against the rim of the toilet bowl.

He heard a door slam somewhere else in the house, the sound sending shockwaves of pain reverberating inside his skull and he groaned. The groan quickly turned into a burp, which then turned into puke, and he hung his face over the toilet bowl to void the contents of his stomach.

Why had he done this to himself? Alcohol hangovers were worse than energy overdose hangovers.

"I'm back!" He heard Gwen's voice ring through the house and he wished furiously, and prayed to all the gods he knew of aline and Earthling alike that she would just quiet down. "They didn't wanna release Kevin's car to me at first. Apparently, the motor-pool attendants find him intimidating for some reason."

She was answered by another voice. One entirely unfamiliar to the Osmosian. Young and male, slightly sullen sounding, just a bit of incredulity coloring his tone. "You don't understand why other people might find Kevin Levin intimidating?"

He wished they would stop talking. Of if they must continue, then please, just leave. His head couldn't take it.

"Has he emerged yet?" Gwen asked.

"Haven't seen him all morning." Answered the young boy's voice.

Young boy... ugh, that was right. That was the whole reason he let Tennyson take him out drinking in the first place. The obnoxious Hero of the Universe thought a drink might calm him down after a mysterious boy claiming to be his son from the future was inexplicably teleported into the center of Plumbers Headquarters. A boy who claimed to be Kevin's son, but knew nothing of Gwen being his mother. That was the thing that lead to the Osmosian's anxiety. Gwen. How could any child of his not know Gwen? Kevin wasn't interested in having children with anyone but his wife. Admittedly, he wasn't interested in having children at all, but if it was going to happen -and he'd just met some pretty compelling evidence that it was- then it would happen with Gwendolyn Eleanor Levin.

Gwen huffed. "I'll go check on him."

The bathroom door was opened and Kevin's eyes were assailed by cruel, offensive, and unforgiving light. He threw his hands over his eyes, the sudden stimulation and movement making his stomach churn all over again and the Osmosian found himself vomiting a second time -except there wasn't anything left in his stomach to throw up, so he just dry heaved into the bowl. Ugh. Being friends with Ben Tennyson was suffering.

"W-why?" He heaved into the toilet. He had nothing left to give. He wished his body would stop trying to expel stuff that wasn't there.

"I hope you learned a lesson from this." Gwen crossed her arms over her chest and watched without sympathy as her husband and father of her unborn child -or future child that was currently sitting in the living room- continued to heave into the toilet bowl without actually throwing anything up.

"Loud." Kevin groaned. Heave. Groaned again. "You're being loud."

She did not seem the least bit moved.

"I'm taking our future-son to my library at Friedkin." The sorceress informed him. "Its where I keep the Archamada. There's a time traveling spell in there that I can use to return him to his own time."

Kevin groaned again, this time trying to climb to his feet on unsteady legs. His head still hurt and his vision was a little blurry. The light of day hurt his eyes and he still thought she was speaking just a little too loud. But... "I don't want you alone with him."

"You still think our son is a danger to me?" Gwen fixed him with a glare.

"You're an Anodite, he's an Osmosian!" Kevin reminded her with a snarl, as if that was all the explanation that was necessary.

The sorceress was not impressed. "You're an Osmosian."

"And I've nearly killed you!" Her husband roared, then heaved. He caught it in his mouth, then fell back to his knees, his head in the toilet again. This time something did come out. Just a bit of thick stomach bile. There were no other contents left to expel. He heaved again. When bile stopped coming up, Kevin coughed, wiped his mouth, and tried to stand again. He cleared his throat. "I nearly killed you, Babe. And that was when I was older and had a better understanding of myself and my powers. This kid is the age I was when I was Kevin 11. When I was an amoral psychopath that thought the answer to all my problems was just kill everyone who upset me! I know what its like to be eleven years old and Osmosian, okay. So forgive me for being worried!"

For a moment, Gwen was just going to dismiss his concerns outright. But -when she thought about it- he did actually make one good point. He _did_ know what it was like to be eleven years old and Osmosian, she did not. She knew what it was like to be eleven years old, mostly human, studious, well-adjusted, and popular. So, maybe on some level, Kevin could understand their son from the future better than she could. But that did not make him a danger. And she had some pretty convincing evidence to support her side of the argument.

"I spent the whole evening with him last night while you were out drinking." She reminded him. "As you can clearly see -I'm fine. So, obviously, Osmosian or not, Anodite or not, our son is not a danger to me."

"Yet."

"What?"

"He's not a danger to you yet." Kevin clarified. "And I'm gonna make sure he doesn't become a danger to you. You don't get what its like, Babe. When you get a taste of really potent energy..." he sucked on his bottom lip, his eyes taking on a far off and dreamy glaze. But the Osmosian caught it quickly, shaking his head to clear whatever memory he'd called up. "If anything ever happened to you, I don't know what I'd do. I'll protect you, Gwendolyn. Even if I have to protect you from our own son."

…

The car ride to Gwendolyn's library was awkward. Devlin sat in the backseat while Gwendolyn drove Kevin's car.

Kevin for his part had tilted the front passenger seat back so far, he was as close to laying down as he could be in a moving car. He groaned every time Gwendolyn took a turn a little to fast, burped, and rolled down the window for a little fresh air. He kept his long hair over his eyes the whole time and if the road turned them in a way that caused the sun to shine directly on him, he would throw his vest over his head to further block the light.

There was an awkward lack of conversation.

Devlin wasn't a very social or talkative person by nature. He preferred to remain quiet and observe rather than participate. Being out going and assertive took to much energy. But in this particular instance, he felt the need to fill the silence with some kind of inane noise.

"Does this happen often?" He ventured.

"No." Sighed Gwendolyn from the driver's seat. "Most of our battles tend to be extraterrestrial in nature. Most of the adventures that require the use of my library actually tend to also start in my library."

"Uh, no..." Now the boy was embarrassed. "I meant Kevin. Does this happen to him often?"

"Wha'd'ya tryin' ta say?" The older Osmosian slurred from under his vest. He lifted the fabric enough to peer at the boy, and for a split second Devlin saw the man he was more familiar with. The Kevin Levin that raised him. The Kevin Levin that was always angry. The Kevin Levin that was never satisfied. The Kevin Levin that reprimanded him for the slightest of trespasses. His hands tightened on his seatbelt. His father always intimidated him so easily.

Gwendolyn did not seem the lest bit bothered, though. "Oh, no. Kevin almost never drinks. That's why his hangover is so bad. He had no alcohol tolerance."

The older Osmosian groaned again and lowered his vest back over his face.

"But that does make him a pretty cheap date!" She laughed.

Kevin groaned again.

Devlin lapsed back into silence after that. It was about all the conversation he wanted to have. That, and his father -his future father?- without even saying anything managed to intimidate him into behaving. Not that trying to talk was exactly misbehaving, but if the older Osmosian was suffering from a headache, then his talking wouldn't exactly improve his condition. Devlin was a member of Team 'Lets not do anything to piss off Kevin 11,000'.

But Gwendolyn didn't seem like she was done talking.

It would only be natural, he supposed, for her to be curious. She was already pregnant and a boy from the future appears claiming to be her husband's son from the future. Of course she would have questions. About him. About Kevin. About how things were in the future. She already knew Devlin didn't know her. And she knew that he thought -he _knew_ \- his father was evil. It was only natural she would have questions.

"Does Kevin drink a lot in your time, Kid?" She asked. If she was dead and he was left alone to raise a child he never wanted to begin with, would he develop a drinking problem? A self-destructive coping method to help numb the grief over the loss of his love.

"I've never seen him drink." Devlin informed her.

Of all his father's many faults, failings, and flaws. His vices and excesses. Alcoholism was not one of them. Energy addiction? Yes. Definitely. But not alcohol.

"So then you've never seen him like this." She concluded.

"No." The boy agreed. "Not like this."

When Kevin was recovering from his excesses, it was usually an excess of energy, not alcohol. Instead of headaches, light sensitivity, and dizziness, his symptoms were irrational anger, tension, and misplaced aggression. To be completely honest, Devlin actually preferred hungover-Kevin to energy withdrawal-Kevin. At least this one wasn't threatening teach him a lesson and reminding Devlin that he was no better than Kevin himself. After all, it was because of his own inability to control his powers and curb his own energy cravings that Kevin had to take him away from his mother in the first place.

Devlin's eyes shifted to Gwendolyn.

When she cast her flight spell yesterday he had sensed a small taste of her manna, and yeah, it actually did taste really great! When he was younger... a baby, unable to tell the difference between 'parent' and 'food'... he could easily imagine himself just automatically trying to absorb her. Just on base instinct.

His eyes flicked back to Kevin.

And last night, when he was drunk off his ass, Kevin did also say that if anything happened to Gwendolyn he would 'lose his shit'.

What if that was exactly what happened?

What if Devlin really did try and eat his own mother?

…


	6. Everyone Fights at the Library

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter Six: Everyone Fights in the Library

Gwendolyn looked exceedingly frustrated when Ben walked back into the -still mostly destroyed- kitchen later to make a smoothy. She was in the process of packing up her book and candles. The supplies she'd brought over to preform her time travel spell. He also noticed a decisive lack of Devlin. So, the boy still hadn't been recovered.

"I'm guess you didn't have much luck contacting Spanner." He concluded.

She paused in placing her candles in a box and glared up at him. "We remember Spanner coming to get him, so -obviously- Spanner got the message eventually. He just hasn't brought him back yet."

"Right, well," Ben assumed she would want to wait until Devlin was returned, "want a smoothy?"

The sorceress did not look pleased by the offer. If anything, she looked more annoyed. "Ben, do you remember who else showed up when Spanner came to collect Devlin?"

"No...?" He began. Thought. Remembered. "Oh! Right!"

"What did you do with the Null Grenade we put Maltruant in?" She demanded very, very calmly.

The Hero of the Universe gave an unconcerned shrug. Maltruant was a time traveling bad guy. There was no reason to assume that the same Maltruant who attacked them eleven years ago was the same Maltruant that attacked them today. It could have easily been the Maltruant native to that time, or another Maltruant from even father in the future. "I gave it to Grandpa Max to put in the Null Void."

"You didn't take care of it yourself." Gwendolyn concluded.

"Hey, I've finally learned to delegate." Ben scoffed.

"Grandpa is in his nineties. He should be taking mid-day naps and complaining about modern contemporary media." She reminded him. "Not cleaning up your alien messes for you."

Ben pouted with irritation. "Look, I get that it's your son that's missing and you're 'Maternal Insanity' mode, but can you chill for, like, five minutes."

No sooner had these words escaped the Hero's mouth than another explosion rocked the Headquarters.

Gwendolyn crossed her arms over her chest. "You were saying."

They ran to the Null Void chamber to find Max down on the ground, trying to push himself back up using his prosthetic arm, while coughing into his other hand. Both Hero and sorceress ran to his side.

"Are you alright!?" Asked Gwendolyn.

"What happened?" Ben wanted to know.

Max coughed again. "Subdora and Exo-Skull showed up. They freed Maltrunat before I could put in him in the Void. He escaped. I think he went back in time."

...

Rook was frying eggs -normal terrestrial chicken eggs- when Ben finally emerged from the bedroom. The Revonnahgander had let his partner take the bed while he slept on the living room couch.

Ben shambled into the living room and flopped down on that very couch -which had been made back up so neatly one couldn't tell anyone had slept on it the previous night. Then again, Rook always was meticulous and neat.

Speaking on his neatness, the Revonnahgander came out of the kitchen with a cloth napkin and laid it over Ben's lap. Then he set up a TV tray for the Hero of the Universe before disappearing back into the kitchen to fetch a place setting -fork and knife (with a second napkin, because this was Ben he was serving). Next came the actual food. Fried eggs, served with low-sodium bacon, toast, and a glass of orange juice. Rook was a very accommodating host.

"What's all this?" Ben could only blink at the spread laid out in front of him.

"Breakfast." Rook blinked back at the Hero. "You are not still drunk are you?"

"What? Oh, no. I was sober by the time I got up at midnight to pee." He looked back down at the food in front of him, then picked up his fork. "Ya know, no counting my parents and Grandpa Max, I don't think anyones ever made breakfast for me. Ever. Kai doesn't even cook for me -even when she is home. We usually just order take out or delivery."

He went for the bacon first. Taking a bite of the crispy, thick sliced, strip -then moaned with appreciation.

Once again, if Rook had come from a species that colored with their emotions as humans did, he would have blushed at the unspoken complement. As much of a handful as Ben was, as annoying, immature, self-centered, and slow to learn a lesson as Ben was, Rook liked making him happy.

"Ya know, I'm a little jealous of Rayona." Ben commented through a mouth full of bacon and eggs.

"Why?" Rook blinked. He hadn't thought of her in years.

"Well, you're still planning on marrying her, right? I'm jealous that she'll get to eat your great cooking every day."

"Right. That." That wasn't going to happen. Suddenly, Rook found that he didn't know what to say. So he did what he always did when Ben got him all twisted up into knots and he didn't know what to do or say. He retreated into the job. Their job. The one thing they would always share even if they weren't partners anymore. "Should we call Headquarters and see if any other mysterious travelers from the future have appeared?"

Ben was sipping the orange juice. He swallowed. Wiped his mouth. Scoffed. "I'm sure they would have called us already if that were the case. What we should actually do is go over the Gwendolyn's and see how Kevin's doing. See how bad his hangover is. Maybe take a few photos for blackmail material."

That was his immaturity talking.

"Or to check and see how the boy is doing." Rook reminded him. "Since he seemed very insistent of Kevin's villainy, he may not have felt very comfortable or at ease sharing a domicile with him."

"With Gwendolyn there? Nah." He snorted at his partner's concerns. "As soon as he sees her put the smackdown on Kevin, the Kid will know who the boss in that relationship is."

"I suppose..." The Revonnahgander did have to admit that Gwendolyn did have a very authoritative way of managing her mate and his mercurial moods. She was a very formidable woman. Then again, one had to be formidable to be a member of Ben's Team. Gwendolyn was probably the only female on Earth whom could handle Kevin Levin. Of course, Kevin Levin was formidable in his own right -also being a member of Ben's Team- and so, he was probably the only male on Earth capable of handling Gwendolyn Tennyson-Levin. ...No wonder their future child had sever emotional problems. With parents like them...

Ben scraped the last of the bacon and eggs crumbs off his plate and onto the toast, then bit into it loudly. He, at least, did not seem the least bit concerned about their mysterious visitor from the future or what his appearance might portent for the rest of them.

Rook sighed. For someone who had earned the title Hero of the Universe, the changling could be absurdly laid-back and flippant. Brushing off things that should be legitimate concerns.

"Relax." He swallowed his toast. "Gwendolyn's got time travel magic, remember? She'll send him home and everything will be back to normal by lunch time. Then we get to tease Kevin mercilessly for the next nine months or so. Ooh! I call dibs on being Godfather!"

Though some aspects of Eathling cultures still eluded him, Rook was pretty sure the title of 'Godfather' was an honor bestowed by the parents and wasn't something one could 'call dibs' on. The Revonnahgander sighed again.

Then another time traveler appeared in his living room.

Both Revonnahgander and Hero blinked at Spanner.

Ben sighed, suddenly regretting his assurance that everything would be just fine. "Or, the time traveling sentai that only shows up when there's trouble could appear in your living room and tell us just how bad things are."

Spanner glanced around. Noted that they were not in Plumbers HQ, and that Ben was still in his pajamas -'pajamas' here meaning just his underwear.

"He's not here." The time traveling sentai that only ever showed up when there was trouble concluded.

"I assume you are referring to the boy from the future." It was phrased like a statement, but Rook pitched it like a question. "If so, he is with Gwendolyn and Kevin."

"Gotcha. Thanks." Nodded Spanner. Then he was gone again.

Revonnahgander and Hero exchanged a look.

"Would you like to put clothing on?" Asked Rook.

"We should follow him, shouldn't we." Ben answered.

"It would be the responsible thing to do."

Ben sighed. "Okay. But make me some more bacon for the road." A pause. "Please."

…

Gwendolyn's library was amazing. Devlin had never seen so many book in one place in his life. He himself had only ever read one book. 'The Princess Bride', his father's book. But looking at all of Gwendolyn's books and assuming that she'd red all of them at least once, he began to really understand the scope of what it meant to be a sorceress-Plumber and High Magus. Then glanced at his father and had to ask himself how such an accomplished woman could ever have fallen for Kevin Levin?

The Osmosian shambled into her library. He was no longer wearing his vest over his head. He had instead shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses procured at the Friedkin student store, and was sipping coffee from a paper cup. He found the demist corner of the library and pulled a chair over to sit down. But even shrouded in shadow, Devlin could feel the older man's eyes on him. He wasn't even born yet on this end of the timeline and his father already didn't trust him.

Both Osmosians watched the sorceress leaf through the pages of a book she called the Archamada, looking for the time travel spell she promised would be able to return Devlin to his own time.

Kevin yawned.

Thinking his father was becoming frustrated and fearing what he might do, Devlin decided it was a great idea to break the silence. "Does it usually take this long?"

"No." Gwendolyn assured him.

"It usually takes longer." Kevin growled, then sipped his coffee.

"You hush." Gwendolyn jabbed a finger at the Osmosian.

She set the open book down on a library desk and pulled chalk and some candles out of a drawer. Only in a magical library at a magic school would you find a desk stocked with chalk and candles -and the matches to light them.

Gwendolyn did not light the candles. At least not right away. First she knelt down on the floor with the chalk to start drawing the sigil the spell required. A triangle by the looks of it.

"Should you be doing that if you're pregnant?" Kevin asked.

Pausing for a moment, the sorceress looked over her shoulder at him as if the most ridiculousness thing ever had just escaped his lips. "Yesterday we fought an insane geneticist and his mutated monster-pets, but you're worried about me bending down."

Devlin tried very hard not to snort at the absurdity of his father's question. Even he knew that women didn't suddenly and inexplicably turn into porcelain dolls the moment _you_ found out they were pregnant. They were still people. The human body didn't change over night -only the Osmosian body did that.

"Yeah, but..." Kevin tried. "That was... I didn't know... before..."

Clearly, he had not quite learned this yet.

"Do _you_ know how to properly draw a magical sigil? Would you like to do this for me? Since you seem to think bending down is so bad for me." Demanded the sorceress, offering him the chalk. Kevin didn't exactly answer, he just shrank back further into his shadowy corner. Gwendolyn nodded at the appropriateness of his reaction. "That's what I thought."

She went back to making sure her lines were perfectly straight.

That was when a fourth person appeared in the library. Dressed mostly in white. A helmet over their head with a dark visor obscuring their face. A long scarf worn more like a cape and green trim that seemed to be in keeping with the general color scheme of Ben's Team. But Devlin didn't know him.

He didn't come in through the door. They just appeared. First he wasn't there, and then suddenly he was. Between the tick and the tock of the grandfather clock against the far wall. The inexplicable appearance startled the younger Osmosian and he might have made an embarrassing noise that eleven-years-in-the-future-Kevin would not have approved of.

"Who're you!? How'd you get in here?"

Both adults looked up.

Neither of them seemed too concerned.

"Spanner?" Gwendolyn forgot her chalk and magic sigil for a moment, standing the face the mysterious time traveling sentai that only ever seemed to show up when there was trouble. "What are you doing here?"

"Ugh. This isn't gonna be some more Time War shit, is it?" Kevin growled from his dark corner. "'Cause I managed to keep myself out of that pretty well thus far."

Devlin looked from the adults to the newly appeared 'Spanner' person.

"No, no. No Time War today." The masked sentai assured them. "I'm actually here for him."

He pointed at Devlin. The young Osmosian took a step back. "M-me?"

What would a mysterious masked, time traveling sentai want with him? He knew about Spanner. His father had told him about the teen hero with the time travel device that helped Ben in the past (in the present?). That he always managed to show up right when trouble was going down -or about to go down. He was here for Devlin? Was he here to take the young Osmosian home? Did Ben send him? Or... or was the time traveling sentai here for him because _he_ was the trouble?

Maybe his father was right? Maybe he was a monster, and a bad seed, and did nothing but ruin lives, and maybe things would be better if he was never born -or just disappeared with a masked time traveler.

"I knew it." Kevin growled, taking off the shades he was wearing over his eyes. "He's some kind of criminal from the future. Like I was at that age. What, did he escape the Null Void or something?"

"Kevin!" Gwendolyn snapped at him.

"What?" The older Osmosian looked genuinely confused by her reprimand. "You and Tennyson threw me in the Null Void when I was eleven."

"That was different!" She snapped.

"How?" He demanded back.

Spanner sensed that there were some unresolved resentments on that subject. He knew Uncle Kevin had been to the Null Void a couple times, he just never realized that he'd been in and out of the alternate dimensional prison starting from such a young age. No wonder Uncle Kevin was always so grumpy.

Aunt Gwendolyn was about to answer. But she was cut off suddenly by the inexplicable appearance of another time traveler.

Maltruant materialized in the library.

He saw Devlin first. High Magus Gwendolyn's only child. A high value bargaining chip that could play well into his megalomaniacle plans of multiversal domination. It was funny, he wouldn't have even know the child's significance if he hadn't gotten between the sorceress and the Chronosapien's temporal displacement attack. He made a lunge for the young Osmosian.

But Spanner got between them. "No!"

He shot the Chronosapien with his wrist blasters. It stunned him lightly, but didn't do much else.

Spanner looked over his shoulder and shouted. "Hey, Kevin! Since you seem in the mood to beat something, why not pound on this guy!"

The Osmosian growled. "I knew it, I'm finally getting pulled into Tennyson's stupid Time War."

He lowered himself into a crouch, hand flat against the library floor and absorbed the carpet. Realized that carpeting would be useless as armor, and shifted his hand to the nearest bookcase instead. Wood wasn't the best armor ever, but it was better than a rug.

Gwendolyn came up beside him, her magic sigil forgotten, her hands glowing, silent spells at the ready. "You alright there?"

"I'll be fine." Kevin snarled.

"Good." Gwendolyn nodded. "It'd be a real shame if your hangover was interfering with your ability to fight."

No sooner had she said this, than she raised her arms over her head and cast a spell that -while successfully knocking Maltruant back- also flooded the library with light. The Osmosian groaned, shutting his eyes and staggering backwards. His wood armor melted from his skin. Yep. His hangover was totally gonna get in the way of his usefulness in this fight. If Kevin was smart, he would just sit down and stay out of the way.

Gwendolyn shifted her position. Joining Spanner. Both of them placing themselves between Matruant and the mysterious boy from the future.

"My son isn't actually a criminal, right?" She hissed to time traveling sentai.

"No." Spanner assured her.

Gwendolyn nodded and turned her attention back to the fight at hand.

Maltruant took advantage of the small distraction that single-moment exchange provided and aimed an attack -not at either sentai or Anodite- but at the Osmosian -and adult Osmosian. Still grappling his hangover, his reflexes slow, Kevin was hit by the Chronosapien's attack. His figure turning dark with sepia tones as his body was frozen in time.

"Kevin!" Gwen exclaimed.

"We can fix him later!" Spanner informed her. "Right now, protect Devlin!"

"Who?" The sorceress blinked at the unfamiliar name.

Spanner realized his mistake the moment the question was out of her mouth. He was sharing to much information about the future again. He had a bad habit of letting things slip in the heat of a battle. Like when he accidentally called his dad 'Dad' -also while fighting Maltruant- and just totally and completely blew his secret identity. He really needed to watch that if he was gonna keep doing this. "The boy from the future!"

She nodded her understanding. The boy from the future. Her son. Devlin. Or, wait, was it Devin and she just misheard him? Devin would make more sense after all. That was the name of Kevin's father -who technically never actually existed... But it was a sweet idea to name their son after him anyway! False memory construct or not, Devin Levin was the perfect idea of what a father should be and Gwen hoped Kevin followed his example -even if he wasn't real.

"The would-be magus with toxic taste in mates, and the masked annoyance who just wants daddy's approval." Maltruant scoffed. "You think the two of you have any hope of defeating me without Ben Tennyson?"

Gwen did not dignify that with a response. Unless a rolling of the eyes counted as a response. It wasn't the first time someone accused her of not being able to defend the innocent or defeat an enemy without her absurdly over-rated cousin, and it wouldn't be the last time. In all honesty, it was probably Ben who couldn't defeat his enemies without her, or Rook, or Kevin, or Kai, or any of his other allies. For a 'Hero of the Universe' Ben was actually pretty useless on his own.

She sent two blasts of mana careening at the Chronosapien.

But just when it looked like they were about to hit, Maltruant flickered. As if shifting in and out of existence. That was right, he had the ability to 'skip' moments in time. So, any attack thrown at him him real time could be dodged just by him removing himself from that singular moment when said attack would have hit him. Gwen really hated time travel.

Spanner, however, in addition to his jet boots and wrist blasters had a Time Shift device given to him by Professor Paradox. He actually could keep up with Maltruant! -Not that he did a great job of keeping up with the rouge Chronosapien a few hours ago (his personal time) at Great-Grandpa Max's retirement ceremony.- But this was just the opertunity he needed to redeem himself!

The next time Aunt Gwendolyn shot her mana orbs at the Chronosapien, Spanner was ready. He shifted his time just a half second before Maltruant shifted. He didn't stop the clockwork villain, but he was able to actually hit him. Ramming into one of his shoulder plates in the morphose space between the tick and the tock of the clock.

Both sentai and Chronosapien groaned at the contact. Colliding in mid time-space continuum wasn't exactly comfortable.

Maltruant threw Spanner off himself and the masked time traveler would have collided with Devlin if the young Osmosian hadn't chosen that moment to transform. Instead of barreling into the temporally displaced child, he was instead caught by two of his mismatched mutant arms. Devlin 11 put Spanner back on his feet.

"Thanks, Dev." He said without thinking.

"Do I know you?" Asked the young Osmosian, still confused as to what exactly was going on, but -at this point- not really caring anymore. Maltruant was the bad guy, that much he remembered from when he and Great-Grandpa Max were first attacked, and it was abundantly clear that this 'Spanner' person was an ally. That was really all Devlin needed to know. It was just a little strange that Spanner would address him so informally, like they were best friends or something, when the Osmosian had never met him before this moment.

"Sort of." Spanner did not give any more explanation than that. "Wanna hit him with one of Diamondhead's crystals?"

"Diamondhead? Oh! You mean my Petrosapien power!" The Osmosian created two diamond projectiles and shot them at the Chronosapien.

Just as Gwendolyn blasted two more raw-mana attacks.

When Maltruant tried to shift again, Spanner shifted too, once again ramming into him mid-second.

He still didn't manage on keeping the Chronosapien in the same placing in time. That is, he still missed the moment where that attacks would have hit him. But this time the attacks at least grazed him. One of Devlin's diamond barbs scraping a long scratch into Maltruant's outer casing.

Amazingly, this seemed to piss him off. Megalomaniacal monsters with the ability to control time itself weren't exactly used to getting hurt.

"You plebeian scum!" He roared.

He spun the key-toggle on his head. Reversing time a few moments to when their attacks were still careening through the air. This time, when they crossed, the Chronosapien wasn't standing in their path and the diamond barbs and mana orbs pass each other by, each careening to the ally on the opposite side.

Gwendolyn had to throw up a mana shield quickly to prevent her future-son's attack from impaling her right through the heart -and the womb.

Meanwhile, Devlin couldn't quite get his arms up quickly enough to block the first mana orb. But the second one, he did manage to block. Actually, he caught it. Actually, he absorbed it.

She paused for a moment, staring at her future-son, momentarily worried. She hadn't intended for him to absorb her power. Now that he had a taste of her mana, was he about to prove Kevin's fears right and go crazy? Were they about to exchange one combat ally for another enemy they had to subdue?

But all the young Osmosian did was gasp, staring at the Vulpimancer paw he'd used to block and absorb the attack with. He flexed the clawed fingers, as if in confusion. His voice cracked when he said, "That tastes so familiar..."

"Touching." Maltruant scoffed.

He sent another attack at Gwendolyn. The same localized temporal freezing attack that he used to take Kevin out of the fight before it even began.

And just like he did when the Chronosapien attacked Plumbers Headquarters in Devlin's own time, the Osmosian rushed to put himself between the sorceress and the attack. Using his Kineceleran speed to intercept the blast before it could hit the woman Devlin was slowly being convinced actually was his mother.

The attack hit him instead, and the Osmosian was frozen in that moment.

Just getting a real taste of the sorceress' mana for the first time that he could remember, and realizing that her energy had a very familiar flavor to it. Not something he could recall consciously, but a memory his body possessed. Of being steeped in and enveloped by that strong, willful, and protective maternal power.

That was about the time Ben and Rook finally arrived on scene. Right when the giant, hulking monster that looked identical to Kevin back when he was 11 jumped in front of his cousin to protect her from an attack shot by the Chronosapien.

"What did we just walk in on!?" He exclaimed. Time travel shenanigans were all well and good. But where way the mysterious Kid from the future? Why was Kevin 11 here? Why did Kevin from back then protect Gwen? They didn't even like each other back then!

"No!" Gwen sobbed. She reached a hand up to stroke the frozen and sepia toned face of Kevin 11, his expression paused on an epic face that was halfway between panic and compassion. Since when did Kevin 11 ever feel compassion? "Devin..."

'Devin'? Wasn't that supposed to be the name of the fake memory construct Servantis made as a father figure for Kevin to idolize back when he was just a sleeper-cell placed in Ben's life? The Hero of the Universe shook his head. Sometimes it was just better to hold all questions for after the butt-kicking was done. Sometimes question got in the way more than they actually helped anything. If Gwen wanted to get Kevin 11 or 'Devin' unforzen, then they had to defeat Maltruant first!

"He'll go back to normal when we win!" The changeling reminded her.

"Kevin will too." Rook added, finally noticing the other Osmosian in the corner, also immobile and in sepia tones. "That Kevin, I mean. Both Kevins?"

Spanner shot Maltruant with his wrist blaster. Or, more accurately, attempted to shoot him with his wrist blasters. But the Chronosapien just temporal shifted again. Missing each moment when the blasts would have hit him. The masked sentai did a series of backflips that eventually brought him side-by-side with Ben. "Less talking, more transforming, please!"

"Huh. Oh! Right! This looks like a job for Clockwork!" And he slammed his hand down on the large, oversized watch-face of the arm bracer that was the Omnitrix's current incarnation. But the Omnitrix did not give him his sample of Chronosapien DNA. Instead, the Hero of the Universe changed into, "Graymatter! -Aw, hell."

Both Spanner and Rook shared an exasperated sigh.

"Hey, Graymatter is really smart!" The now diminutive Ben shouted up at them.

Neither Spanner nor Rook looked impressed.

Ben gave the Galvan equivalent of a huff. "To hell with you two. Hey, Gwen! Anodites are made of pure energy, remember! Energy doesn't obey the same temporal rules that solid matter does. You can use your mana to hold him!"

"That doesn't sound like a thing." Spanner informed him. After all, if that was a thing, why hadn't Aunt Gwendolyn just been doing that the whole time?

"I am afraid I must agree with Spanner." Rook added. "I do not believe energy and time behave in that way."

To their concerns, Ben only gave a very Galvan scoffed -no, not a Galvan scoff, an Asmuth scoff. "That's because you're simple minds can only think in three dimensions. Just try it."

Well, what was there to lose? Gwen shrugged to herself. Her husband and her future-son were already frozen. It wasn't like she had collateral t worry about, and if this was the only way to get them back...

Her hands glowed with star sapphire light. No spells. She didn't know if there was a spell for what Ben was suggesting. The sorceress just lashed out with raw power, encircling Maltruant in tight bonds of mana. Or rather, she tried to encircle him in tight bonds of pure magical energy. But in the half-moment before her power reaching him, he shifted again.

She growled in frustration.

"I got him!" Spanner shifted too.

Gwendolyn tried again, reaching out for Maltruant with her power.

This time, when the rouge Chronosapien tried to temporal shift, Spanner shifted at the same time to stop him. The sorceress was able to grab him and hold him with her energy.

"Hm. So this is how she learned to do that." Maltruant muttered to himself. Then, to her, "Please don't slam me into the floor this time."

Gwen tightened her hold on the time traveling megalomaniac. She was going to ask 'this time?', but reminded herself that he was a time traveler. He was probably referencing an altercation that hadn't happened on her end of the timeline yet, but was already old history for him. "I won't if you release Kevin and my son."

The Chronosapien looked from the motionless form of the mutated Osmosian spawn, to the mannequin-like figure of its father. Both still as statues, the color gone from their skin and clothing, replaced with sepia tones beige, ivory, and brown. "Alright. Fine."

He tried to lift a hand. Quickly realized that it was a pointless attempt when he was bound in mana like he was and just flexed his wrist instead.

Devlin was the first to recover. He staggered a little, disoriented and unsure of what exactly just happened to him. Everyone was in completely different positions than they were half a second ago, and since when did Ben and his Revonnahgander partner arrive? When did they defeat Maltruant? How did Gwendolyn trap him in her mana? Gwendolyn! The young Osmosian snapped his attention to the sorceress -his mother. The last he saw, the rouge Chronosapien had launched an attack at her. He tried to get to her in time to block it, but... he didn't what happened after that.

"You're alright!" He closed two of his mismatched arms around her in relief.

No sooner had the young Osmosian touched her, however, than they heard an angry shout from the other side of the room.

" _Get away from her!"_

And before anyone knew what exactly was going on, Kevin had crossed the space between them, grabbed Devlin by one Lepidopterran wing, pulled him off Gwen, and slammed the younger Osmosian into the ground. And Kevin wasn't even wearing armor, either. He had it with sheer bruit strength and force of will -no powers.

"What now?" Ben demanded.

"Kevin! That's our son!" Gwendolyn exclaimed.

The Osmosian glared up at her. He made no move to let the boy up when he said, "He was gonna absorb you!"

"No. He wasn't." She snapped back at him. "He was glad I was alright."

"Are you insane!?" He snarled back. "Look at him! He's mutated! He's what I was when I was Kevin 11! When I was an amoral sociopath who only cared about satisfying myself, and thought the answer to all life's problems was just to kill anyone who upset me! That's what he is right now! _Look at him!_ "

"I am looking at him." Gwendolyn said, very, very calmly.

Kevin looked down at the boy he was holding down. The boy. Somewhere between being slammed into the floor, and being accused of being a sociopathic monster, the younger Osmosian had reverted back into his human form, turning back into a small boy. Kevin looked down at the child he was holding down. His hand so almost as big as the kid's whole head (not counting the pony tail). He lifted the hand that was pressing his face into the library carpet.

The boy made no move to get up. He stayed down. Body to the ground, staring up at Kevin. Eyes wide. Tears streaming from them. His expression wasn't shock, or betrayal, or any other similar emotion you'd expect to find on the face of a child that'd just been attacked by a parent. Instead it was an odd and heartbreaking kind of resignation. An acceptance of sorts. This was just the way things were. He was a monster. His father had told him so all his life. His father had thought as much since before he was born.

"Move!" Gwendolyn shoved her husband to the side, the Chronosapien her magic was holding completely forgotten. She knelt down next to her child. "Are you hurt."

That was when Devlin finally got up. Pushing himself into a sitting position. He closed his eyes, ashamed that they all saw his crying. "No." He croaked. "I'm fine."

Maltruant took advantage of their distraction. He raised both arms to launch an attack that would destroy all of them in one stroke. Gwendolyn Tennyson and her mercurial Osmosian mate, their unwanted mutant offspring, the Revonnahgander that was really the only one with any real brains in the whole group, and the ever and eternal thorn in his side, the perpetual roadblock to his plans, the so-called 'Hero of the Universe', Ben Tennyson!

At least, Maltruant thought he would get rid of them all in one stroke.

Something small and goldish rolled between his feet. The Chronosapian barely registered a Null Grenade before he found himself suddenly sucked inside it.

Spanner picked up the egg shaped chamber. Holding it on eye-level so he could see Maltruant inside, Kenny smirked behind his mask. "Not today."

He put the Null Grenade in a thigh pocket on his uniform and turned his attention to Devlin.

Kenny knew that Uncle Kevin was a really shitty dad when Dev was younger. When it was just the two of them and Uncle Kevin was half-insane from power-overload. Back when Uncle Kevin was Kevin 11,000 and Devlin had no idea Aunt Gwendolyn was his mother. Heck! Kenny was there when Uncle Kevin -no, not 'Uncle Kevin', he wasn't Uncle Kevin back then, he was Kevin 11,000- back when Kevin 11,000 threw Devlin across a room just for getting between him and Kenny's dad. But... it had been so long since then and Kevin was way, way, way better than he was back then. He was cool now. He and Devlin -Kenny's Devlin, the fifteen-year-old Devlin- they weren't exactly 'tight', but they could at least live in the same house without hating each other and Aunt Gwendolyn only had to break up fights, like, once or twice a month.

But still... it was still jarring to see again.

He held a hand out to the elevein-year-old Devlin. "Are you ready to go home?"

The young Osmosian looked at the extended hand skeptically -almost suspiciously. Kenny had to remind himself that Devlin didn't know him in this form. Even back in his own time, Dev didn't know that he was Spanner. He looked from Spanner's white-gloved hand up at Gwendolyn. From Gwendolyn to Kevin. Quickly decided there was no reason for him to stay here. He might as well take the hand of this stranger. At least Gwendolyn seemed to trust him. Plus, he did help them defeat Maltruant.

"Yeah. Okay." He took the sentai's hand.

"Bye, guys!" Spanner waved with his other hand.

"Always an experience." Ben waved back.

Then they were gone. Shifted through time. Traveling in the space between the tick and the tock of the clock.

…

They materialized back in the kitchen of the Plumber's Headquarters.

Someone had duct taped a tarp over the hole in the wall. Other than that, no other repairs or clean-up appeared to have been done. In fact, it looked like people had just tried to go about their normal routine even with a destroyed kitchen. There was a dirty blender with the remnants of smoothy that hadn't been there before.

"Well, here you are." Spanner informed him. "Your home for the first part of summer 2028."

"First part?" Devlin asked, startled. Was Ben not gonna keep him? That's right. They never planned to keep him. Ben and Max always planned ot return him to his biological mother. A mother that was, in all likelihood, Gwendolyn Tennyson.

The Osmosian's question didn't get answered. Spanner was already gone by the time he turned around.

Devlin forced himself not to worry about it to much. It had been a trying two days for him and he was exhausted. Mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. He could worry about what was gonna happen to him next later. Right now, all he wanted to do was find the bedroom Ben had given him and take a long nap.

He passed through the living room on his way to the bedrooms and heard someone snoring.

Peering over the back of the couch, he found Gwendolyn asleep. An open book laying forgotten on her belly, one hand clutched around the chain of a necklace of some kind. Coming around to the front of the couch, the Osmosian took a throw blanket and draped it over the sorceress. Ever if she wasn't his mother, when he was in the past, she was the one who trusted him implicitly and work hardest to make him feel safe, accepted and... wanted. It was nice. Gwendolyn was nice. He really, actually, did wish she was his mother.

 _'We've known Kevin since he was eleven years old. That's almost all his life. And, all his life, Kevin E. Levin has only ever loved one woman. I know who your mother is, Devlin. But its up to you whether or not you want to know too.'_

The sensation of the new weight on her caused the sorceress to stir.

Gwendolyn looked at the blanket in confusion. Ben would never put a blanket over her. He'd never even think of it. It was more of a Grandpa Max thing to do. Then she turned to the side and saw the boy standing by the couch.

"Devlin!?"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." He assured her quickly, still not sure what his position in this... family really was.

"You're back!"

He was not expecting her to reach out with both arms and pull him into a tight bear-hug. It was okay, though. The Osmosian was kinda getting used to them now. It was actually kinda nice. Being hugged by someone who cares about you.

"I'm so glad you're home safe." She muttered into his hair.

Reluctantly, Devlin reached one arm up to -very loosely- hug her back. He took a deep breath. Taking in the scent of her hair and -yeah- maybe a little of the mana that just radiated off of her too. That delicious, flavor. But also that warm, protective, maternal, and familiar energy.

The Osmosiain screwed up his courage. He still had adrenaline from the fight in the library pumping through him. He better ask now before he lost the nerve to.

"I went to the past." He told her. It was actually easier this way. Asking mid-hug. That way he didn't have to see her face. He could talk to her shoulder instead. "I saw that you used to be married to my dad. Max says my dad only over loved one woman, and he was married to you. I never knew my mother. Dad never talked about her much except to tell me that I was dangerous to her and I was the reason he couldn't be with her. I don't- I don't know- I have to ask. Are you my mother?"

She pulled away from him enough to look the boy in the eyes, and Devlin was startled to see that she was crying.

"I honestly didn't know if I'd ever see you again." She told him, wiping her eyes. But the tears kept coming. "I didn't know what Kevin did with you, or what he was going to do with you, I-" Gwendolyn cleared her throat. She still hadn't technically answered his question. "Yes. Yes, Devlin, I'm your mother."

She leaned in for another hug.

This time Devlin hugged back with both arms. "I don't understand. What happened?"

Sobbing into his hair, she said, "It was the worst thing to happen in my life, but... You have a right to know."

…

END


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